The Double End Melody
by I.Dunno.They've.Got.Brooms
Summary: Sophia is like them to an extent, and when she meets the Cullen family her life changes, along with the family's. DISCLAIMER: The ONLY character that is mine is Sophia! That is it! Also some of the story content is tied in with S. Meyer's Eclipse.
1. Chapter 1

One

The sun was shining, but it could not break through the thick trees in which she ran through. She kept running, her long auburn hair billowing behind her in waves as she continued running. The freedom of this act alone made her feel so alive, there were no sounds around her yet, nothing but the occasional soft breeze causing a stir in the branches overhead. Suddenly she heard a snapping branch and froze. She looked down, no branch was under her foot, it couldn't have been her. It had to be something else, someone else, something not as careful as she had been.

She turned and ran back the way she had come, something inside her triggered this unsafe feeling. Pushing herself as fast as she could she stopped when she reached the edge of the trees where she had parked her car. There was an unfamiliar car parked next to hers. She looked at the silver car, confused, and then looked over hers. Her familiar, and lovely baby blue, Mini Cooper. Her most prized possession. She jumped into the car after finding nothing wrong, and sped off onto the roads, still wet from the rain that had only just stopped before the sun began to shine through.

These roads were still strange to her, and she slowed when she saw the cars ahead. The last thing she would need is to stand out. She continued on until she pulled up at the small house in which she lived, tucked away, and surrounded by woods. She walked in and sighed as she looked around the room. Bookshelves lined most of the walls filled with every book she had ever read, and some that she had yet wanted to read. A piano sat against one wall that did not have shelves, and on top of the piano sat stacks of music, most by her favorites such as Chopin, and then some written by herself. Against the piano sat a cello, the first instrument she had learned to play.

She sat at the piano bench, looking down at the ivory and black keys wondering if she would ever be able to finish the last part of the song that she had begun writing a month ago. She was too stubborn to change any of the rest of the song, it was perfect, but she couldn't seem to find the right part to come after this one section. She settled herself by playing "Prelude in E Minor" and cleared her mind. It would come to her eventually, and when it did she knew she will have made her perfect song, but until then...

Her small hands grazed over the keys and she stared down at them and sighed. Things could have been so different, everything could have been so different. Her like wouldn't be this way right now, if only she had been more careful. Everyday she saw herself in the mirror and couldn't stop the resentful look from clouding her eyes. The song came to an end and she placed her hands in her lap.

Tomorrow would be her first day in a new school, and she would be a senior. Granted it was halfway through senior year, and it was the worst time to make a transfer, but it had been necessary. She only wished that things were not that necessary. She sighed and decided to continue trying to figure out her song after all.

The school was small, as was expected in a town this size. Forks, Washington was hardly the place to go if you wanted to see a lot of people, or if you wanted a graduating class with hundreds of students. She walked to the office to get her paperwork, as was customary when transferring schools. They handed her a schedule of her classes, and a map of the school. She thanked the lady who smiled back at her cautiously.

"Good luck, Ms. Leon." The lady called after her.

She had pronounced her last name "lee-on", and it was wrong, but she wasn't about to correct her. She turned to the lady in the office, offering her a slight smile and a nod in thanks, and then walked out of the room. She looked at the map and shoved it in the back pocked of the skinny-leg jeans she was wearing. She wore a cashmere, off-the-shoulder black sweater, and black heeled boots that almost came up to her knees, fitting her calves perfectly. She left her long hair down, it hung halfway down her back in perfect waves.

Another day of school, she thought, but it couldn't possibly be so bad. She walked into her first class, English, and looked around the room. It was still fairly empty and she walked up to the teacher, they signed the slip for her, and she took a seat at the back of the room. Her notebook, and textbook sitting in front of her in a neat stack. She pulled the pen out of her pocket and waited for the class to begin, in the mean time contenting herself in staring out of the window at the clouds that were rolling in. Snow would be falling, she was sure of it. It had been an unusually warm day yesterday that it rained, and sun shone warming everything only a slight degree more, but today was back to the harsh cold air of January, ice on the roads from the rain still leftover the day before.

Students began filing into the room, staring at her as they came in. This wasn't something she ever really paid much notice to anymore, it happened quite often. She looked around and smiled at each face that was staring back at her. She sat patiently waiting for the teacher to begin lecturing the class on whatever mundane topic he would choose, and then she froze in her seat, still unlike anyone else in this room could be still, except for maybe the reason...

_This couldn't be possible_, she thought to herself. _What were the odds... the chances that something like this would ever happen in THIS school..._

No, nobody could have predicted this change of events, nobody could have prepared her for something like this to happen. She dared not even turn her head to look in the general direction which would bring her eye to eye with exactly what she had been trying to run away from since the first time. She listened intently, waiting silently, and making sure that her face showed absolutely no fear first, and then no emotion if she could stop it at all. Everyone would be staring at her, and she knew that showing any signs was against her own rules. She was only here to go about living her life, and not to have to deal with this again.

She looked down at her textbook and wondered whether she should leave, or if she should even stay. Who knew how dangerous the situation would be for her the instant she moved, or didn't move. No, she had to stay, people would be suspicious if she even tried to move. She decided to stay, but she still refused to look anywhere but directly down at her textbook and notebook.

"Mr. Cullen, would you and Bella like to have a seat and join our class, or would you rather be staring at our new student Sophia for the rest of the day... as seems to be what the rest of the class is doing."

"No, sir, we'll sit. Bella..." His smooth voice said.

She felt her body tense when she heard the seat next to her scraped against the floor, he wasn't making any efforts to hide that he was sitting next to her, and she knew he was staring at her, and she refused to move, afraid that even the slightest move might ruin everything for her. Sophia closed her eyes and tried to think about anything else that might take her away from the fact that right now she was in danger. Her secret would not be a secret with him here.


	2. Chapter 2

Two

The class seemed to drag on forever, and the moment the bell rang she was on her feet and quickly walking out the door in the slowest, yet fastest way that she could without giving away anything. She froze again when she stepped out of the door and her eyes locked on another one. This one was petite, short black hair pointed in different directions, her eyes were dark and black which set her mind off in warning.

She turned quickly and continued walking, the sound of her heels echoing through the hallway. Sophia knew she was being followed due to her other secret. As if she didn't have enough secrets already, she had another one on top of that she had to hide. However, this one was beneficial to her in her situation, and she knew that she could use it on these two following her now, but she decided her best bet would be to get away from them as soon as possible.

Sophia walked out to her car and the moment she reached it she turned and faced the two she knew were following her. They stopped yards away from her, the petite one seemed confused, and the other was tall, handsome, a boyish face and unusual bronze hair. His eyes were also dark, and he looked furious as he stared back at her, his body looking as though it was going to spring out at her at any moment.

"Who are you?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Sophia Leon." She answered simply, cringing a little as her accent came through. "And you?"

"My name is Alice Cullen, and this is Edward." The small, female one answered.

"Why are you here?" The one named Edward asked her his serious expression never wavering.

Sophia paused to think at how to answer this question. "I moved here... I wanted to be in a place where I could be outdoors during the day... and the last place I lived... well, people began to get suspicious of me."

Edward looked at Alice and clear as day she heard her thoughts, _We need to talk to Carlisle about this._

"There are more of you?" Sophia asked. "And... that human in the class... she's with you?"

Edward growled. "You stay away from her!"

Sophia shook her head. "I have no intentions of going anywhere near her... I apologize, I meant no harm in coming here."

"I don't believe you." Edward commented.

Alice put a hand on Edward's chest. "Edward, stop it."

The human girl ran up towards them, she looked over at Sophia with curious eyes, this girl was wondering who she was and why she was here, and she was afraid of her. Funny that this human girl was afraid of her when she was the last person that anyone needed to worry about fearing.

"You must understand, we are going to have to tell our father that you're here, and... we will need to take you with us..." Alice explained softly.

"I understand."

"I'll take Bella in my car, I don't want them in the same car, for obvious precautionary measures, of course. Alice, go with her." Edward demanded, pulling the human girl along with him.

"Where is your car?" Alice asked.

Sophia pointed to the car she was standing right next to. "Shall we?"

Alice made a move towards the driver's seat. "I'll drive, since you don't know how to get there."

"No, no... I know." Sophia assured her. "Plus, I don't ever let anyone drive my car."

She looked at Sophia for a moment wondering whether she should trust her, or not. In the end she resigned and shrugged, climbing into the passenger seat. Sophia sped out of the school parking lot and off into the town quickly. She soon found the clearing in the wooded trees and turned in, stopping when she reached a beautiful white house that looked old-fashioned. It was larger than any house that she had ever lived in, or seen for that matter.

Alice got out of the car and stared at her. "How did you know..."

Sophia smirked and closed her door, gesturing to the house. "It's quite large. I don't believe I have ever seen a house of this size before. There must be a lot of you sharing this home."

"There's a good few of us."

"From the looks of all these cars, it looks like more than just a good few." Sophia replied while she followed Alice into the house trying to keep a brave face on to show that she wasn't afraid of what was about to happen, when she was terrified.

In the house were five more and Sophia froze. They stood in pairs, except for the younger of the blond males who was quickly at Alice's side. There was another blond man who seemed older than the rest of the males, but still young. Next to him, a woman with soft features, and oddly enough a soothing smile her brown her falling softly around her face. Another male stood with a strikingly gorgeous blond woman. He stood taller than the rest, and larger than them as well. Each one of these males were handsome, and each female varying in different types of beauty.

Edward walked in with the human and they stood farther from the rest. Sophia looked around the house, and was not surprised in the least that everything inside seemed so open and bright. It reminded her of her house. Her small house had large, arched windows that reached from the ceiling to only inches from the floor. She always had her window open for the most part, nobody would see her there, and therefore she had no reason to hide.

The one she had noticed earlier as the older male stepped forward, holding his hand out to her. "I'm Carlisle... I've been told you're Sophia?" She shook his hand quickly.

"That's right."

"Well, Sophia, this is my family you've met Edward, Alice, and Bella. With Alice over here is Jasper. This is my wife Esme, and over here we have Rosalie, and Emmett." He pointed to each one as he introduced them, and she noticed the only two that smiled were Esme and Emmett and they were completely different smiles.

"Okay, now she knows us all... can we figure out what she's _doing _here?" Edward growled.

"You're not a very pleasant fellow." Sophia commented.

Everyone in the room laughed. "Don't mind him, he can be a bit overly dramatic sometimes without need." Alice explained.

"We just need to know why you're here." Carlisle stated.

"Well, I moved here because it was ideal for being able to live a fairly normal life without being found out. The constant cloud cover allows me to be outside almost every single day without worrying about anyone or anything. As I'm sure was the base of it's appeal to all of you."

"But the problem is you're on OUR land." Rosalie said.

"Rose..." Emmett whispered.

"I'm sorry, I'm only surprised I haven't come across your scent yet. Had I know that there were others here... I wouldn't have stayed."

"Why is that?"

"I... well... ever since my change, I've been afraid of ever coming across another one of us. I have always hated what I am... I didn't want this, and so to keep myself from killing humans I found that I could sustain myself on animal blood... I'm sure the thought of that is disgusting to you."

They had all frozen. "You... feed off animals?"

"I know it sounds strange, but really it isn't so bad. I don't want to feed off humans, it isn't their fault that I'm still here and it wasn't their fault that I was changed into this. It's almost my way of denying what I am." Sophia explained.

"No, you don't need to explain... that is how we feed." Carlisle said.

"Really?" Sophia asked. "I've never met another one that lived how I lived."

"Are you alone?" Carlisle asked.

"Yes." Sophia answered.

"Fascinating. I don't think in all of my years I have ever come across a single vampire who hunts the same as we do." Carlisle replied.

Everyone in the room relaxed, even Edward. Sophia looked over at him and heard him. _Thank God she's not like the rest._

Sophia looked to the human, and wondered why she couldn't hear her thoughts. It was as if she had a block on them. She turned her attention back to Carlisle.

"Yes, well, my apologies for coming here and stepping on your territory. Give me a day or two and I will be out of your way." Sophia said.

"No! Oh no! You don't need to worry about that, you see, we were only concerned that you were like the usual of our kind. We feared that if you were feeding off humans then it would have ruined everything that we've tried to build here." Carlisle explained.

"I have a question..." Alice asked.

Sophia turned to give Alice her attention. "Your eyes are so blue... where did you get those contacts?"

Confusion washed over her face. "I don't know what you're talking about... these are not contacts."

The whole family seemed to freeze again, as if she had revealed a fact about herself that nobody was supposed to know. "You mean... your eyes never changed color when you became a vampire?" Alice asked.

"No, not that I'm aware. They will go black if I'm thirsty, but they always return to the blue color."

"That would explain..." Carlisle began but stopped.

"What?" Sophia asked.

"At first I thought maybe it was just... no, you don't think it could be that you're still in part human?" Carlisle asked.

"I don't understand."

"How familiar were you with your parents?" Carlisle asked.

"Well, my father was from Spain, my mother was from England. We were living in Spain only for a short time after I was born, and my father died. I don't know how he died, I was too young to know. My mother left with me to England, and I lived there my mother died when I was seventeen. I was eighteen when second World War started. I was helping with our military, a nurse. I was in France, and I was going outside to get a breath of fresh air... I heard a sound and turned to see a man, he was filthy from head to toe and I assumed he was a citizen caught in the middle of the war, an innocent bystander. I went to help him, and he grabbed me carrying me, running off into a dark place and I couldn't get away. He looked at me for a moment... and then he bit me. I remember everything, I remember a slight burning, and I remember him looking at me so confused. He waited for a moment, and then he ran. I remember being in that room for a while... I passed out... and became conscious a few times during the course of, I don't know, I assume a few days. When I woke up I remember going back to work and finding that the building was empty. I found a mirror though... I was pale... really pale... my eyes looked the same and yet I could notice everything looked so much clearer I could see farther. I could hear better, I could hear things being bombed that I'm sure were too far away for me to hear. Then I remember the sun coming out and... well, you know what happens when the sun hits you. The problem is though, despite all of this I... my heart is still beating... I feel it, but it's not strong it's like my heart is whispering... my skin is not cold like the one who bit me... or even you, I'm sure."

"But you're a vampire?" Carlisle asked, completely fascinated by the idea of her hybrid species.

"I only crave blood... even human blood, but again like I said... I refuse to kill a human for a mistake that wasn't theirs in the first place. I'm fast just like you, strong just like you, you'd probably have to kill me the same way... my body is like a stone... just slightly warm. Not quite as warm as a human, I consider myself like a human who's been out in the cold all day and has only just come back in to try to get warm. I'm every bit like you except my eye color, my heart, my skin temperature. My bite is venomous. I could make any human a vampire, full-blown like all of you I even believe. I don't know... I view it almost like my soul isn't completely gone..." Sophia explained.

A booming "WOW" came from Emmett. She could hear his thoughts without even looking at him. _I wonder if I touch her..._

Sophia walked over to him slowly, Rosalie bracing herself to jump at this girl who was moving far too closely to them. She held her arm out to Emmett patiently. He looked at her shocked at first, and then looked over at Rosalie who was seething. She pulled the sleeve of her sweater up and Emmett reached out to touch her, she looked down at the floor not wanting to see Rosalie's angry glare. His touch was cold, although to her it wasn't completely ice cold she was almost used to the temperature. What had shocked her was the almost electric shock of his touch. She felt every bit of her alive under his touch. His fingers grazed up her arm. He grabbed her hand, and squeezed. She looked up to meet his challenging eyes and squeezed right back, his eyes opened up in shock.

"She's strong!" He exclaimed, releasing her hand with a laugh.

Rosalie hissed at her. "Don't EVER touch him again!"

Sophia laughed, looking Rosalie from head to toe, her head tilted to the side with a smirk on her face. "I'm not here to start trouble, he was wondering what it was like... so I let him touch my arm. I figured it was the safest place, I wasn't going to do anything, I know he's your territory."

Rosalie growled, and Emmett said, "Well, I'm not territory..."

"You're MINE!" Rosalie yelled looking at him seriously.

"Well, I mean... we're together, but I'm not an object..."

"No, I found you, you belong to me!" Rosalie exclaimed, her face looking livid.

"Rosalie..." Carlisle said calmly. "She was not trying to upset you."

"How did you know what he was thinking?" Edward asked in an attempt to change the subject and allow the atmosphere to calm.

She looked over at him. "Well... you see, I have this ability... I didn't ask for it, but I can just do it. I can hear what people are thinking. Usually, only one at a time and only if I focus on them. It is what's gotten me so far with this lifestyle. It's how I was able to live places without people getting suspicious of me. I could hear if someone was suspicious, and I have the ability to take those thoughts, I can... fabricate my own thought or lie with visions and everything and replace that being's thoughts with my own... normally I would do that and then I would leave so they were unable to come to that conclusion again. To them I'll always remain this beautiful, quiet, lonely girl who ended up moving because her parents wanted her to."

"You can change peoples thoughts? Erase their old memories?" Edward asked.

"Not their whole memory of course, usually just certain memories. I suppose if I wanted to I could change every thought, but it would be tedious. It's not an easy task." Sophia explained.

"It's interesting... because I can hear everyone's thoughts. I thought that was every single person until I met Bella, and I can't hear hers... but then you came and although you have the scent of a vampire, and the scent of a human only ever so slightly... I couldn't hear your thoughts either." Edward said.

"I can't see her future." Alice added. "Which is probably why I didn't see her coming. Well, actually, it's odd... now that I know you... I can see futures of other people that include you in significant ways."

"Oh..." Sophia said.

Edward's eyes widened and he shot a glance to Alice. "No..."

"I can't stop certain things from happening Edward. It's not like I'm making these things up." Alice said defensively. "I wonder... Jasper..."

"Yes?" He asked, a slight southern twinge to his voice.

"Can you control her emotions?" She asked sweetly.

He looked over at her and she could feel a calm setting over her as he walked towards her. Her body felt like it should get away, but she felt so at ease with his narrowing gap that she stayed where she was. He smirked and held his hand out to her, she shook it, and he tested her strength as well, she only laughed.

"The other one already told you I was strong, and you doubted him?"

Jasper let out an easy laugh. "I was curious... I like her, she has a certain spunk about her. I can't describe it, Alice... her... emotions are hard to describe, they're so complex."

"It's okay, Jasper." Alice said.

"Can you wait here a moment, Sophia?" Carlisle asked.

Sophia nodded, and focused on him. _Edward, family meeting, bring Bella maybe she has an opinion as well._ He looked at Sophia and smiled. _I know you can hear my thoughts too._

Carlisle took everyone into another room and Sophia looked around the room clearly noticing the beautiful grand piano. She couldn't help herself, she walked over to it, sitting on the bench. She began playing one of Chopin's Nocturnes seeing as she had them all memorized. She sighed at the perfect pitch. Her piano was so used and abused that no matter how much she tuned it, it was only the _slightest_ bit off, but she knew it all the same. It was brilliant how the sound of this piano filled the entire room full with fantastic acoustics.

Sophia heard the sounds of someone stepping into the room, and she saw Bella standing there. She walked towards her and Sophia looked back down at the keys as she continued to play. "That's really beautiful." She commented quietly.

She could hear the nervous tone in Bella's voice. "You don't need to be scared of me. Your boyfriend doesn't need to be afraid either. I'm not going to hurt you, I have no intentions of doing anything to jeopardize your life."

"I think part of me knows that, and I think part of him knows that, but we've been through a lot so he's just being cautious with someone he doesn't know entering my life that closely." She explained, as she sat next to Sophia on the piano bench, her eyes on the keys.

"They must have been some really awful things that you two have been through." Sophia guessed, having left Edward to his own thoughts. She made a mental note to look into it later.

"You don't know yet?"

"Not yet, I've had no need to invade his own private thoughts. You see, with my talent I can opt to ignore people's thoughts. I can leave them to their own life as if I was normal. At the same time I tend to use it to my defense so I know when it's time for me to leave a place."

"Why did you leave your last place?" Sophia asked.

"Well, there was this boy in my class who liked me very much, and he expressed that to me many times. He couldn't understand why I wouldn't give him the time of day, he was the most sought after boy in the school, all the girls were jealous of me for it... but I just didn't like him and not to mention I knew his intentions and they weren't always good. Well, you know, aside from the obvious fact that he's naturally what I'm made to kill." Sophia paused to look at Bella for a moment before continuing her story.

"He gave me a lot of unwanted attention, watched me through a microscope, and began to see things that were odd with me. One day, I don't know how, but he figured it out... and that's when I changed his thoughts quickly replacing them with my own intricate, fabricated thoughts and I made sure he forgot... he had. He was back to his unnecessary wanting of me. So, that night I left, and drove here because it's cloudy here. Then, there you two were. I was afraid he would kill me. I wasn't sure how strong I was because I'd never met anyone who had the same diet, but of course I didn't know that until I came here. I just knew that he was a vampire... he was one of them, and I've been abused too many times by his kind, and hunted by his kind to have an instant reaction to their scent."

Sophia ended the song and looked over at Bella who seemed to be taking everything in. "They call themselves the 'vegetarians' of the vampire lifestyle. Was it hard... to live on your own like that?" She asked.

Looking down at the keys again, Sophia began to play another Chopin song. "Yes... it's hard when you have nobody. I'm always alone and... well, when you're awake all day long... it's difficult to find things to entertain your time for so long."

"I can imagine."

The whole family came in from the other room and Sophia stopped mid-song to stand and move away from the piano in one swift flash of a movement. Bella, who had been sitting next to her while they were talking jumped up and quickly walked over to Edward, although she envied Sophia's quick, graceful, and silent movements, who wrapped his arm around her. He glanced up at Sophia for a moment.

_What was that about?_ He asked._ Can you hear me?_

Sophia nodded in response, but didn't dare answer the rest of his question with the rest of the family watching her every move so carefully. She looked over at Rosalie again who seemed to be calm for the moment, a bit smug, even. Jasper and Alice were smiling, and Esme who followed with Carlisle was also smiling. Carlisle on the other hand just looked calm with no other emotions showing on his face, a look that Edward seemed to have picked up from him.

"Before you say anything, I apologize for playing your piano... it's beautiful. I only wish mine was so great." She commented, glancing once more at the piano longingly before walking closer to the family.

"No, it's fine, you're a talented pianist." Edward commented. "It's mine anyway, I don't mind. I'm afraid I've been neglecting it too much lately, I'm glad that someone has found use for it."

"We have a proposition for you." Carlisle began.

She shifted her attention to him. "What is that?" She asked, curiously.

"I think it would be easier if you joined our family... but only if you want to. Obviously, it would be your choice, and yours alone. I cannot make that call for you, but I can tell you that for the safety of our entire family, and yours it would be the best decision for you to stay with us." Carlisle suggested.

Rosalie growled. "YOU DID NOT SAY THAT YOU WOULD LET HER IN THIS FAMILY!"

"Rose..." Emmett sighed holding his arm out to stop her.

She quickly shrugged his arm away and launched at Sophia. Sophia caught her in her jump, and held her arms length away, trying not to laugh at Rosalie's snapping mouth as she hissed and tried to get closer and closer to her. "You're a feisty one, aren't you? Quite territorial. My dear, jealousy is not becoming on you. You are one shockingly beautiful creature, but this behavior is a bit unnecessary, and I daresay not attractive in the least."

Rosalie screamed trying to break free of the grasp Sophia had. _I'LL DRINK ALL THE BLOOD OUT OF YOUR BODY AND KILL YOU MYSELF! _She screamed in thought the determined sound of her voice ringing loudly and equally as clearly in her own mind.

"You honestly think that drinking my blood will kill me? You don't think other vampires haven't tried that already? Here, I'll inform all of you... Emmett, would you be so kind as to take your... girlfriend?"

"WIFE!" Rosalie screamed.

"Yes, well... all the same, would you?" Sophia asked, and Emmett took a step towards her.

Rosalie made a sudden move and latched on to Sophia's neck. Sophia gasped in shock at first that she even tried. Emmett, Jasper, and Edward all grabbed a hold of her pulling her off. Rosalie's eyes were wild with thirst for her blood, she was no longer in control of her usual thirst. She had a taste of Sophia's blood and she wanted more. Jasper was quickly losing his control too, but Sophia remained unworried.

"You see... oddly enough... I'm a bit of a freak. You can drink from me... but you see I'm immune to the venom that leaves the victim in pain as I have already been bitten before. Somehow though, as someone drinks my blood, my heart seems to go into overdrive to replenish what has been lost. It doesn't end. I've had a vampire latch onto me and drink until he was so full of it he could drink no more. It doesn't kill me, and as you can see..." Sophia showed her neck. "I heal..."

Carlisle examined the area, and sure enough it had sealed itself again. "So, they can't bleed you dry?" Carlisle asked.

"No, my heart can beat at irregular speeds pumping out as much blood as needed. It's as though my brain knows how much it needs to be replenished. It's all back in my system within minutes or hours depending on how much is lost. The only thing is that it makes me weak while my body tries to recover from the loss which in turn makes me easier to kill." Sophia answered.

"You're basically like a super-human." Bella pointed out.

She smiled at Bella. "I suppose that's one way of considering it."

"What do you think made it so that you did not fully transform into a vampire?" Carlisle asked, he was genuinely curious to figure this out it was a sort of medical marvel, or just some phenomenon that was not supposed to be possible.

"Well, I did some research on my father... it seems that he must have been a vampire himself. I was too young to remember. My mother was... human... when she had me there was no trace of me being abnormal at all, the vampire gene must have been in me but only ever so slightly... so that when the transformation was made... I was immune to some aspects already... that's my only theory. It's the one that makes the most sense."

"Was there any difference in the pregnancy?" Carlisle asked.

Sophia shook her head. "The vampire gene must have been quite the inferior of the two. I remember seeing pictures of my mother while she was pregnant and she was fine. Other people had told me what an easy pregnancy I was for her."

"Are you sure your father was a vampire?" Carlisle asked.

Sophia shook her head again. "I'm not completely sure, mainly because I never really knew him, but my research points in that direction, and it just makes my theory come together. So, I just imagine he was. I suppose I will never know."

"I imagine not." Carlisle mumbled. "Well, would you like to join our family? We have plenty of room. Alice and Jasper said they would not mind sharing a room as right now they have separate rooms. We could give you one of theirs, and help you move all of your things here."

Sophia looked towards the door where Emmett, Edward, and Jasper had left dragging Rosalie. None had come back in yet, and she turned her attention back to Carlisle. "I'm not sure that your daughter wants me to be in this family. I don't want to be a burden, and I don't want to ruin the relationship that your family has with each other."

"You would be no burden, dear. You're all alone, and what kind of life is an eternal life alone? You're paying such a high price for something that was done to you and you could not have stopped if you had tried. Do not force yourself into a life of solitude when you could have people to spend the rest of your existence with. It would be so much easier for you." Esme explained soothingly. She put a comforting hand on Sophia's shoulder.

"What about Edward? He didn't like me in the beginning... and Jasper looked like he might lose control..." Sophia pointed out.

"Edward has no problems with you now that he sees you don't kill humans." Bella spoke out. "Trust me, I know... he told me himself."

Sophia nodded, and looked at Alice. "But Jasper..."

Alice smiled. "You are going to play a significant role in Jasper's life... one that I will be eternally grateful for. He is fine with you, he has no resentment towards you, in fact he's quite fascinated by you. He's never seen anything like you in all his years as a vampire which, next to Carlisle, is longer than the rest of us."

"I'm just afraid I'm intruding..." Sophia began.

"Carlisle, don't let her talk herself out of this... she's really lonely..." Bella sputtered.

Sophia's mouth fell open. She had told this girl something in confidence and she spilled it out for the whole family to hear. "Well then, please, join us..." Carlisle tried again, his voice was full of sincerity she could never think his request untrue.

She was about to object again when the door flew open and all three men came in. Edward was at Bella's side in an instant, jaw clenched. Jasper looked serious, and Emmett was furious. He didn't stop in the room but flew up the staircase.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT WOMAN!" He yelled just before he slammed a door that was upstairs behind him.

Sophia heard something crash to the floor and shatter. She turned to look at Carlisle, and pointed up the stairs. "That is probably why I shouldn't stay..."

"No, that has nothing to do with you." Jasper commented. "Believe me..."

"Edward, what happened out there? Where's Rosalie?" Carlisle asked.

Edward sighed, and looked over at Sophia for a moment before returning his gaze to his father. "She was wild, Jasper helped calm her down, but once we calmed her thirst she was furious. We had run pretty far from here, but she was screaming at Emmett telling him she hated him for wanting to let her stay. She said this was not her family, and that anyone letting a disgusting half-bred vampire in this family shouldn't deserve to exist in this world."

"But she let Alice and Jasper in so easily when they came." Carlisle said.

"Yes, but you see, first off Sophia is part human, even if it is just a little." Edward pointed out, before he continued. "... Alice came with Jasper. Sophia came alone, and she is not a fan of anyone else interrupting the idea of perfection that she has in her mind. She's also jealous of the fact that Sophia isn't exactly plain looking."

"Gorgeous is more like it." Alice commented.

"Sophia, please... it would make things so much better for you. This is something you don't need to worry about." Carlisle begged.

She looked around the room to see every set of eyes on her. She even heard movement from the top of the stairs, and she looked up to see Emmett standing there watching her. Everyone wanted to know if she would take them up on this offer. Now, if only she could feel comfortable enough being here. Her life had been alone for so long, but did she really want to step into a family so large and possibly ruin everything for them. What happened if someone became suspicious of her? She would not be able to leave without consulting the family, and that restricted things quite a bit. This was not going to be an easy decision either way.


	3. Chapter 3

Three

(One Month Later...)

Sophia climbed out of her Mini Cooper and looked over at Bella whose face seemed upset. Bella had gotten out of her car, which she admitted was probably the most normal car aside from Edward's Volvo, she admittedly liked Sophia's car. Sophia had been living with the Cullen family for a month, and everyone who had asked got the formulated story of Sophia being one of Carlisle's nieces. Emmett, Edward, and Alice were all adopted, however Emmett was supposedly off at college. Rosalie and Jasper were supposedly off at college and they were twins. Everyone seemed to just flow with the story because they already thought the Cullen parents very generous with their house and space. This only elevated everyone's opinion of Carlisle.

"What's wrong, Bella?" Sophia asked.

She sighed as she followed Sophia. "I just hate it when Edward is gone. I'm always afraid that he'll leave again... even though part of me knows that he will be here."

Sophia couldn't stop the frown from forming on her beautiful face. She remembered the day she had asked Edward about what had happened with Bella when it came to the horrible things that had happened between them. She had been curious after the conversation the two of them had the first day they met while she awaited her fate playing the piano. Edward told her to go into his mind and she felt like she lived it, and she remembered the feeling he had when he left her, the image of her face when he told her he didn't love her. She even saw the images that Jacob had shown him of what she looked like when he had left her. Sophia had hugged Edward quickly afterwards.

"He'll be back, and Bella, don't worry I know that you feel so alone when he's gone..."

"It's harder because he won't let me see Jacob."

Sophia nodded. "Ah, the werewolf friend."

Bella laughed once, absolutely no humor in her voice, and followed Sophia through the front door of the house. "Yes, the werewolf friend."

"He's a young werewolf, Bella. Edward, and Alice are just being cautious to ensure that you are not harmed... and yes, I know that you believe he would never lose his control, but it doesn't matter if he doesn't want to lose control... no werewolf ever wants to lose control around a human that they care about, but the problem is that they cannot help themselves. Their transformations are so dependent on their emotions that there is no telling what will happen. Those who care about you know this, and they just don't want you in that situation. Werewolves can't control what they are like we can."

Bella took a long look at Sophia as they sat on the sofa in the living room was a long pause of silence. "Do you still feel lonely?" She asked quietly.

Sophia could feel the ache from deep inside that she always worked so hard to push away. "I have a family now, and I would never trade that..."

"That isn't what I meant by that question..." Bella's voice trailed off, and she took another breath before she began again. "It's just that you haven't mentioned anything about it lately, but I'm just wondering have you ever considered maybe trying to talk to..."

At that moment the front door flung open and Emmett walked in with Esme, who happened to be carrying an armful of food. The two looked back towards the girls. "How was school today, Bella? Trip over your own feet, or did you manage to make it through the day unscathed?" Emmett asked with a laugh.

Bella rolled her eyes and said, "Do I look injured to you? I came out just fine, not even a scratch, but as for school it was boring... and uneventful."

Esme gave Bella a sympathetic look. "He'll be back in a couple of days, stay positive, dear." She drifted into the kitchen silently leaving the three of them standing in the living room.

As Edward, Alice, and Jasper were out hunting for the weekend everything remained fairly quiet. Carlisle was working so he wasn't there with them very often, but he and Esme had gone hunting the previous weekend so after returning from a hunting trip Carlisle tended to spend a lot of time in the hospital making up for what time had been lost. Emmett was alone now that Rosalie had not returned since the day that Sophia joined their family, and that made things strange around the house for her. He rarely ever talked to Sophia, and when he did it was only out of necessity rather than out of want. Everyone had already paired up for hunting, which left her with Emmett in this round, and she wasn't sure she wanted to go hunting with him, but that was the way that it seemed it was going to work. She was thinking she might be able to drag Jasper with them as she had gotten very close to everyone in the family Alice, Jasper, and Edward being her closest friends, as long as Jasper was okay with going out a second weekend in a row.

Emmett shifted uncomfortably in the spot where he stood and then looked back and forth between the two girls on the sofa. Sophia looked away from Emmett and down at the homework that sat open on her lap. She wanted to do anything that would occupy her mind instead of having to worry about what kind of angry look would be on his face at that moment. She knew that he partially blamed her for the fact that he was alone, and she couldn't stop the feeling of guilt that washed over her every time he would look at her with that hurt expression. His eyes expressing everything, and only made her wish sometimes that she had chosen to leave instead of stay.

She waited until she heard him leave the room until she looked up again, and in those short few minutes of awkward silence she had finished her homework, and so she sat there with Bella at her side struggling through hers. Sophia left Bella concentrating on her work, and walked over to the piano and began to play a song she came up with on her own. Esme drifted into the room a peaceful smile on her face, she always loved the music whenever she or Edward played. As Esme stood there watching her newest daughter Sophia transitioned into her favorite song. She had learned it when she heard Edward playing it for her once. The smile grew wider on her face as she watched Sophia.

_Thank you._ Esme's voice rushed through Sophia's thoughts.

Time seemed to pass slower than usual, and once Bella finished her homework she sat with Sophia on the piano bench. "So, you never did answer my question correctly."

"I'm not going to answer it the way you want it answered. I just don't feel comfortable talking about that knowing there are other people in this house now who can hear every word if I decided to say it out loud. It's not something I care for people to know."

"I don't understand why you feel so embarrassed about it... maybe you should try talking to..."

Sophia hissed at Bella, interrupting the middle of her sentence. She had jumped off of the piano bench, and for the first time a human looked genuinely afraid of her. "I know where you're going with that sentence, and I'm telling you that it's not a good idea. You might believe that the option in your head is the best option there is, and it would solve this problem, but it's not."

Bella sighed. "You don't even know what I'm thinking, so you have no idea what I was about to say to you."

"Believe me when I say that I'm not quite as blind as Edward can be. He depends a whole lot more on his ability than I do, and I'll tell you now that I've learned to read people in more ways than one. Hearing everything they ever think about is only an added perk." Sophia explained. "I know you well enough now to know where your mind was going with all of that."

"In that case I wish I could make it harder for you to figure me out." Bella muttered throwing herself down on the sofa.

Sophia looked at Bella's pathetic and sad expression and an idea came to mind. She jumped up and grabbed Bella, dragging her towards the front door. "Come with me."

"Why? Where are you taking me?" Bella asked.

"I can't tell you, but I'll tell you this. It's my plan therefore Alice can't see it, and by the time I get you to where I'm taking you it'll give you some time..."

Bella fell into Sophia's car with a bewildered look on her face. "You're being cryptic, and I have to admit that it scares me."

"Yes, well, you shouldn't be scared of me. I already explained this to you."

Sophia sped out onto the main road, soon Bella began to recognize where they were. "YOU CAN'T! You just said..."

"STOP! I need you to listen to me and listen very well." Bella nodded, and then Sophia continued, "You want to see your werewolf friend then this is how you're going to have to do this. Alice can't see my future unless it impacts someone in a huge way. This won't impact anything, plus Alice can't see anything that has to do with werewolves, so now the only way that she can see anything is if you switch your path. I need you to really focus on Edward. So long as you keep thinking about him, I think it will buy you a few minutes, enough for me to get you back to the house before they figure anything out. Got it?"

"You're helping me..."

"Didn't I just say think Edward?" Sophia asked, eyes never leaving the road.

"Edward, yes... you're going to be in so much trouble when we get back." Bella stated, as if she felt this trip weren't worth the trouble.

"You don't worry about me."

They had reached the border of La Push, and Sophia stopped the car. She had always wanted to go on the reservation and see what it was like. This battle was not hers to fight, and it upset her that the Quileute people thought that all of her kind had asked for this fate, and that they were all the same in their desire to hunt people. She sighed at that thought and noticed in the woods a person looking back at them, and he walked out of the trees to the road. Sophia was staring back at him and she focused solely on him.

_Who is that person? I've never seen her before... I wonder why Bella is with her, and why won't she come... no... she can't be another one. I have to warn the others before she hurts anyone, especially Bella._

Sophia sighed in frustration, opening her door as she spoke to her friend. "It looks as though I'm going to have to explain to this one my story, of course, I don't have to necessarily speak to him I could just show him my story seeing as if I tell him alone it may not make much of a difference he doesn't appear to be the type to listen much."

"That's Jacob for you." Bella commented, as they walked forward.

Sophia was fully aware of the line and she stopped short of the line and waited for him to walk up and meet them. "Just be quiet and keep thinking Edward."

Jacob glared at Sophia as if she were the most repulsive thing he had ever seen. Then he stood confused for a moment. "Who are you?" He asked.

"I'm Sophia."

"What are you doing with Bella?"

"Well, just what you see now. I'm bringing her here so that she could see you. I'm breaking all the rules letting her come here, but it is necessary that she has all of her friends, and for some reason unknown to me, she cares about you very much."

Jacob growled. "Let me guess, you're a filthy bloodsucker like the rest."

"I would calm down right now if I were you Jacob Black. That part of the story I can show you." Sophia stated.

Bella watched as, before Jacob could say anything, his eyes looked distant and he stood frozen for a moment as if he were daydreaming while standing there. His facial expressions showing shock, and surprise in places, disgust in others, but his eyes always held that same lost look.

"What are you doing?" Bella asked in a whisper.

"I'm showing him my story before he can decide he hates me. However, for now, he doesn't need to know for SURE that I'm part human. For now, I'll let him sit on those visions and let him form whatever opinion of me he cares to form." Sophia answered.

Jacob shook his head as if he were trying to pull himself out of a dream and looked over Sophia in utter amazement. "Was that... how did you do that?"

"Unfortunately, one of my few gifts given to me when I became what I am now... not that I wanted it, but I can't exactly give it back."

"What was that you showed me? Were those your memories?" He asked, sounding slightly sympathetic.

"Sadly, it is. I only wish I had come up with that on my own." Sophia answered, hanging her head down her voice quiet.

Bella reached to comfort her but Jacob growled. "Don't get close to her, Bella."

She shot an angry glance in his direction. "Look, Jacob, this was her idea for me to come here. You should be thanking her instead of treating her like trash."

"Yes well, we don't fraternize with the enemy too well."

"Did you not pay attention to her story at all? She didn't ask for it, she was attacked trying to help someone."

"I saw."

"And yet you have no remorse because you are too proud. You're saint Jacob always doing the right thing. It's your view or not."

Jacob stood still not knowing what to say. "Don't argue with your friend over me, Bella, he's going to think what he wants of me. I just wanted to give him the opportunity to form an educated opinion of me, rather than just to go with the standard view."

"I'm a little confused about you though..."

Sophia turned her attention on the young boy. "What is it that you're confused about?"

"Well, it seems like... maybe... you don't smell quite like the others..."

She laughed, "That would be because I am not like them exactly."

"So, you're still part human?... That would explain the blue eyes... why do you have blue eyes?" He asked. The only response she gave him was a nod. "How is it that you're still alive, and still look the same? How is it you haven't been killed by one of your own? You're so tiny... like the other one, the fortune teller one..."

"Nobody will know exactly, I guess. That's a story for another time, for now, Bella is here to spend time with you. I need you to promise to be as careful with her as you can be. I did not bring her here to get myself into trouble for more reasons other than the fact that I broke the rules bringing her here. I'm willing to deal with what's waiting for me so long as she's unharmed when I come to get her." Sophia explained, a serious expression over her face. Bella almost smiled because Sophia really was a petite girl, her face so pretty that even when serious looked painfully beautiful and not very threatening at all.

Jacob laughed. "You don't know me very well then if you're warning me about taking care of Bella."

"Oh, I know you plenty well, and I know your temper which is why I warned you. Keep it under control, do you understand me?"

Jacob pulled Bella over the boundary line and answered. "Don't worry about me leech, she'll be safe."

"I'd be careful about throwing insulting names around. I am here on purely civil terms, and let me just say that karma can be a very mean thing without me even having even the slightest hand in helping it along." Sophia stated matter-of-factly, she turned and walked back to her car, she looked back at them for a moment, "I'll call you when I'm here to pick you up. Remember... Edward."

Bella nodded quickly, something told her by the look in Sophia's eyes that she had better just agree with anything that she said at that moment. She watched as the car sped away from her, and she and Jacob turned to go farther into La Push, Edward on her mind.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sophia climbed out of her car and walked toward the house taking a deep breath. "Where is Bella?" A voice asked behind her.

She rolled her eyes and turned to face the source of the question. Emmett stood facing her with an angry look on his face. "Don't worry about it, she's safe."

"Now, see, that's not the answer to the question I asked. I asked, where is she... not how is she doing." He took a step closer to her and she saw that he looked as though he were about to challenge her.

"Does it matter where I took her?"

"It does if it happens to be somewhere that my brother doesn't want her to be."

"Look, you might think he's dangerous... but I don't think it's such a smart decision to keep them apart. Let me just tell you, that if you continue holding Bella hostage she will be quick to decide that she doesn't care about Edward and his childish behavior nearly as much as she cares about Jacob and how he's been such a rock and how he's so willing to take her back despite the fact that there have been people, or vampires, trying to keep her away. Stop trying to baby her and let her be with her friends. Honestly, yes, I agree that it's a dangerous situation, but no more dangerous than the crazy vampire that's trying to kill her. Maybe, it's not such a bad idea to let the werewolves keep an eye on her, maybe... you might need their help someday."

"You have no idea what you're talking about. You haven't been here long enough to know, and you weren't here the first time we came in contact with them."

"Oh, believe me when I say that I have a bit of a better idea than you do... about everything, and let me just tell you that you will be sorry when you need their help or you need an alliance and one that could work to your benefit won't be there... all because you were all too ridiculously proud and stupid."

Emmett growled. "Don't EVER call our family stupid."

"Oh no, you're not stupid, but you're acting it... and I know it's Edward's doing. There are ways to be friends with them without necessarily breaking the treaty, and I have no problem telling Edward that to his face."

"I will tell them what you did."

"Go right ahead, he still can't go and get her."

"You're making a big mistake." Emmett warned, his eyes were dark, and she knew this argument was more than just Bella, Edward, and werewolves.

Sophia dropped her purse on the ground and crossed her arms over her chest. "Really? Is this all about the werewolves? I think this is a delayed reaction to the whole Rosalie thing. I had nothing to do with her. She could've stayed... and had she stayed, I would've gone, but she made that decision for me easily by leaving all on her own accord."

"You still could've gone, and maybe she would have come back."

She laughed slightly, her eyes narrowed on him, a smirk drawing over her beautiful face, and she heard Emmett's fast intake of breath. "Maybe she would have... or maybe she would still be missing, but in the end why should I suffer all because one person thinks that maybe I should leave? I have had plenty of problems due to all of these vampires... I didn't ask for this. You, Rosalie, Esme, and Edward were all dying and I understand that maybe you didn't really comprehend what was happening, but me... I wasn't dying... I was trying to HELP someone. He looked hurt, he looked like he needed help, he looked sick. Then he just turned on me, and left me there... I didn't know what was happening, but yet... all this time, Esme was right, I felt like I didn't deserve to be around a family... I didn't deserve company-"

"You could've found another family."

Sophia was so close to him she could feel his body against the front of hers and she stood on her toes, despite the heels she wore now and looked him straight in the face. "It's been this long, and I have yet to come across a coven bigger than two vampires, and let me inform you that all I have come across enjoy humans, and no... they enjoy drinking from me. Just like your ridiculous, selfish Rosalie did, and yet you still want to deny me this happiness, this family..."

She knew what he was going to do before he did it, and Sophia's hand flashed up stopping the hit that was coming to her face. "Men, do not hit women. It's not polite."

"You... are no decent woman."

"I have done nothing to you."

"You insulted-"

"What? Insulted someone who insulted me? You think I didn't hear everything that crossed her mind, and believe me she was not so innocent as you believed her to be."

"She had every right to be angry."

"Because I was pretty? She hated me because I was beautiful, and she was afraid people would think I was more beautiful than she was. She didn't love you, she thought of you as a prize. You were the little boy she could never have, the marriage she never got. She flaunted you for her own gain, and you let her."

They stood there for a moment, Emmett's fist alone, almost as big as her hand but he stood there with his large fist in her hand in the same position as when she had first stopped him from hitting her. "I'm sorry, I genuinely feel guilty that she left you, but I've seen your thoughts and you deserve someone better than that. She treats you like a dog, and you can't argue that fact with me because you know it deep down."

Emmett dropped his hand, turned, and stalked away slamming the door behind him. Sophia inhaled deeply and spun around to face the opposite direction. Oh yes, hunting with him this coming weekend was going to be a lot of fun. She could see it already, they were going to end up not talking even once. Now she just had to hope that Jasper would need to hunt again this weekend so maybe she could take him as a companion, a mutual peacemaker.

She shook the thought out of her mind and took off in a run in the woods toward La Push. She stopped by the boundary and waited patiently for time to pass. Thoughts of the conversation she had just had flooded her mind and she cursed the whole situation she was now in. No, maybe she could have been a little more tactful with her delivery of the information, but he wasn't giving her much of a choice he was being so stubborn.

A branch cracked nearby, and Sophia turned quickly to the sound. She inhaled deeply, smelling a scent she did not know. She didn't have to wait long for the source to appear. A woman stood in front of her with wild red eyes and bright red hair, her skin was pale and she wore clothes that looked like she had been stuck in a forest for far too long, her hair equally a mess.

"Aw, did you get lost in the forest? You're a pretty little thing..." The woman said.

Sophia laughed. "Oh yes, I'm so lost in the middle of this forest, and me? Pretty? Why thank you."

The sly smile that was on the woman's face slipped for a moment before it returned confidently. "Hmm, this might be an interesting type of prey. I'm glad you're a bit feisty, I'm sick of those who just let me have my way. I want to hear you fight while I kill you then."

Sophia stood for a moment contemplating the words, she could hear her thoughts, she knew that this woman... Victoria her name was... was going to try to kill her. The pictures in this woman's mind of her drinking Sophia's blood were a bit sickening. Suddenly, it dawned on her where she had seen this face before. She saw it in Edward's thoughts, this was the one who was trying to kill Bella. Sophia pulled out her phone and dialed the phone number to Emmett's cellphone despite the fact that she figured he would not answer.

"Aw, are you scared? You're calling a friend? Hmm... more for me... that should be fun."

Sophia held one finger up as she put the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

She could feel the relief flooding through her instantly. "I have a situation." She said slowly.

"Aw, well that's just too bad." She heard Emmett say sarcastically.

"Emmett... it's.... her... by La Push... help me." She hung up the phone and heard Victoria laugh.

"I don't think your friend is going to be able to help you from me. I'm a little too dangerous for your kind." Victoria said. "Now... how about we get the festivities started?"

She had crouched down facing Sophia her lips curled back over her teeth as she hissed, waiting for the fear to show on her prey's face. When Sophia didn't react she stood up again. "Are you going to pretend that I don't scare you?"

Sophia shrugged nonchalantly. "No, I don't have to pretend... you really don't scare me at all."

She needed to bide her time until Emmett got here... if he was coming. Then Sophia stopped and thought, _maybe he isn't coming..._

Victoria hissed again and jumped at her. Sophia took off in a run away from her, and Victoria screamed. "What ARE you?"

"Well, I'm like you, I believe."

"...but you don't smell..."

There was a growl that came from another direction, and Sophia saw Emmett running straight for Victoria, but she jumped over the boundary to La Push and took off in a run along the border, Emmett chased her and Sophia stood there watching the direction they had left in for a moment. She fell back against a tree and sighed. Victoria was a crazy woman, and her mind was one of an obsession to kill, so far gone that she lost all traces of humility and humanity. After she composed herself she turned and walked back towards the road, closing her eyes for a moment.

Sophia was caught up in her thoughts of what had happened that she didn't realize anyone had come up behind her but she shoved as hard as she could when she felt an arm go around her, and began running full speed. She didn't even turn around to see who was chasing after her, too afraid she would see the wild eyes craving for her blood.

"Sophie! Wait! It's just me!"

The familiar voice made her completely calm, she stopped and turned around to see Emmett still running towards her. She ran toward him and wrapped her arms around his neck holding onto him without thinking about the actions or repercussions her actions would cause. When it hit her, what she had just done, she quickly pulled away with an apologetic look at him. He reached forward and pulled her back to him and wrapped his arms around her for only a moment.

"Did you call me Sophie?" She whispered against his chest.

"I'm glad that you're okay, I thought I might be too late." He said as he stepped back away from her with a sheepish grin on his face, completely ignoring her question.

"Thank you... I didn't think you were going to come after the argument that we had before I left... and I thought I could just be here close to Bella just in case I needed to be close... then she showed up, but when I heard her thoughts, I froze for some reason... I don't know..."

"It's okay...."

"Did you get her?"

Emmett shook his head. "She was too fast for me to catch up to her."

The two stood in the middle of the woods staring at each other for a long moment. "So, does this mean that we've made peace?"

Emmett's calm face suddenly turned down into a frown, he shook his head, and as if she couldn't understand the simple gesture he said, "No... I just... I protected you for two reasons only, one was that I can't allow you to die because you're part of the family and they'll never forgive me. The other reason was that I really want to have Victoria dead."

Sophia nodded and began walking away from him towards the road she could now see. She picked the phone out of her pocket and felt a hand push it back down. She turned to see Emmett's face showing confusion.

"I want to like you, and I want to forgive you for the things that happened, but... I just can't yet." He whispered.

She sighed. "Fine."

Shaking him off, she resumed her walk towards the road and dialed Bella's number. "Sophia?"

"I think it's time I got you back, I'm sorry that your visit was so short."

"No it's fine, I'll let Jacob know to bring me to the boundary."

"No need to rush, I'm not on my way just yet, but I will be in just a second."

"Okay, thanks." She said, and the line went dead.

Sophia turned to go back towards the woods and saw Emmett still standing, watching her. "I thought you would've gone."

He shook his head. "I didn't come all the way out here just to leave you and possibly put you in danger again."

She ignored his comment and began running to their house. She could hear his even breathing right behind her while she pushed herself to run as fast as possible back to pick up her car. They reached it sooner than she expected and she quickly jumped into her car and spun around heading back in the direction that she had just come from. When she reached the line she saw Jacob and Bella leaning against a car.

She waited for Bella to get into the car before she waved to Jacob, with a smile on her face and sped back to the Cullen house. Bella immediately picked up on the unusual silence. "What happened?" She asked.

"Your redheaded friend happened to make an appearance and wanted to kill me."

She rushed into a panic at those words. "What happened? Where? Were you alone? Did someone come and help you? How did you get away? Did you catch her?"

"I was walking in the woods around La Push after getting into an argument with Emmett. I was alone, and she showed up, I think I shocked her when I ran... I called Emmett and surprisingly he came to help me. He attacked her and chased her, but we didn't catch her... well, let me correct myself, he didn't catch her."

Sophia could hear Bella's breathing fast and nearing hyperventilating. "I want Edward back now."

"Don't worry, if Emmett does what he says he's going to then chances are he's already on his way back if he's not already back and not because of Victoria."

"So, are you and Emmett okay now?"

She sighed at her naïve friend. "I only wish we would be at least okay, but he doesn't feel he can forgive me just yet."

"He saved you..."

"Only for the family's sake, and for his own hope to catch Victoria."

They pulled into the driveway at the Cullen's and the two walked into the house in silence. Carlisle was home and he showed up in front of her almost the moment she walked in, and pulled her into a hug.

_I'm glad that you're safe._ She heard his thoughts.

She only nodded and pulled away. Esme too, was there now and embraced her. _I don't know what I would have done if we lost you today. I'm so glad that Emmett answered his phone and was able to save you._

The door flew open and Edward, Alice, and Jasper all walked in. "Emmett told me what happened and we came back as soon as we found out." Edward said.

Sophia braced herself for the furious words that she was sure would come from him as soon as he turned to her. Instead, she was shocked when all three had each pulled her into a hug. "Um?"

Edward shook his head in mock disappointment. "The whole thing with Victoria."

"Oh... her."

"We're all glad to see that you're okay." Jasper commented, a smile on his face.

Sophia nodded, and without another word turned and left to her room. She didn't want to be in the room where everyone was looking at her as if she were too weak to fight for herself, but in reality, she had completely forgotten how she would be able to defend herself. Victoria's red eyes shone in her mind and she laid herself on her sofa.

She heard the conversation downstairs. "She's back, so this means we're going to have to be careful what happens." Carlisle stated.

"Maybe we should keep an eye on Sophia too." Jasper added.

"She'll be okay, trust me... there's more to her than meets the eye. I just think she was taken by surprise, but if this happened again she would be okay." Carlisle replied.

"What are we going to do... she's actually back..." Esme's voice trailed off.

Sophia thought to herself, _what are we going to do?_ Certainly, the return of this villain was not a good one, and something just didn't seem right. She could feel something brewing whenever Victoria crossed her thoughts. _No._ She thought. _Next time I will be ready to fight her, and next time she will remember who I am..._


	4. Chapter 4

Four

It was Thursday, and she knew today she would be leaving classes early to go with Emmett on a hunting trip this weekend. An entire weekend... just the two of them. The whole week after the Victoria scenario things had gone back to Iceland between Emmett and Sophia. She just wished that maybe things would've warmed up just a bit, but it seemed as though parkas were needed to just handle being in the same room together. Neither would hold the other's gaze for more than a split second, if that. Not one word had been exchanged between them, and not for lack of trying on Sophia's side. With encouragement from Edward, Alice, and Jasper she would attempt to say something to him, and he would continue acting as if he never heard her.

At that time she was sitting at a table with Edward, Alice, Bella, and some of Bella's human friends Angela, Ben, and Mike. The others at the table were clearly ignoring any of the Cullens and Bella as well. They had no intentions of forgiving Bella for her lapse in personality earlier in the year when Edward had left. Sophia jumped a bit when she felt something hit her shin, and didn't need to look up to hear the voice in her mind.

_What's wrong?_ Edward asked, his voice sounding genuinely concerned.

Sophia sighed, her face must have given something away while she was in thought. She looked up at Edward. This was one moment where she wished that he could read her thoughts, but it seemed that neither Alice, nor Edward needed that ability to know what was going on.

_I'm sorry that Jasper can't go with you._ Alice's face looked apologetic before she turned to acknowledge a question that Angela had just asked.

_Emmett really isn't that bad, Soph. Don't worry, the two of you will be just fine after this trip, you just wait and see._ Edward said, and then turned to Bella with a smile, he hadn't missed the questioning look that covered his girlfriend's face. She was curious to know what was going on at the moment, Sophia knew that look on Bella's face well because she had confided in how she sometimes felt so out of the loop.

She wasn't going to hold her breath though for the fact that she and Emmett might reconcile after all of this time. In her opinion sending her off with a hungry vampire that sadly enough loathed her for the events that led to his wife leaving was not typically her standard thought of a great idea. This idea was actually screaming BAD at her with every fiber of her being and about as loudly as it could that it was one step short of having a bright neon sign with a siren attached.

Sure enough once the first bell rang Sophia's phone began vibrating in her pocket. She pulled it out to see Emmett was calling. She opened it, and before she could even get a word out of her mouth Emmett's voice rushed out, "I'm here in the parking lot in my car."

Sophia had driven Emmett's Jeep to school because she knew that he would want to drive to the place where they would end up hunting grizzlies... his favorite. She rolled her eyes at the thought and then hung up the phone without a word. It hadn't been easy to convince him that her taking his Jeep would be the most logical idea, but in the end the rest of the family persuaded him to do so. She looked up to see Alice, Edward, and Bella looking back at her.

"Be a good girl, and I promise things will go well." Edward reminded her.

"He won't be so happy if you keep treating him with that sort of treatment that you just showed with the phone thing..." Alice added.

"I have to go. I'll see you guys later." Sophia said, cutting Alice off before she could finish her lecture and rising from the table silently carrying her tray of untouched food away.

She was in no rush to leave the school, taking her time gathering her school things she was sure she would need for the homework that she would have to turn in when she came back to school. Sophia walked toward the parking lot slowly trying to mentally prepare herself for the silent treatment she was sure to receive the moment she climbed in the car with Emmett. When she did reach come into view of the Jeep she stopped for a moment contemplating just running off on her own, but decided against that, and to just suck it up and get this over with.

"Took you long enough." Emmett commented, throwing the car into reverse the moment her door closed.

_And so it begins..._ She thought to herself. She thought she saw him smirk for a moment, but she focused her eyes on the road ahead as they sped out of town. At least it wasn't completely the silent treatment, he had said at least one phrase, but she knew it was the first and last.

As she had expected neither of them said a word the whole trip up to where they would be hunting. Once they got there Emmett and Sophia left their phones in the car and the moment they stepped out Emmett ran off without a care as to where Sophia went. At this point she didn't dare to follow him in case he blamed her for interfering with his hunting techniques. She turned around in hopes to find something that she could take herself.

The woods around them were alive with the wind rustling through the branches, and she could hear the sound of the birds chirping happily. She let herself relax into her heightened senses, and listened for something sounding larger. She could feel the thirst burning inside of her. The last time she had looked in the mirror her eyes were the ominous dark color that she hated. It was the sign that always reminded her of what she was. Giving herself into her instincts she waited for one of the many signs.

She caught the smell of a bear and went for it without a thought. She didn't need the assistance of Emmett to catch one of these animals. The bear caught sight of her and growled raising itself to it's full height. She could imagine someone seeing her next to this bear being scared for her, it was almost twice her height when on it's hind legs, but that wouldn't matter. In only a matter of seconds the large grizzly was down and she couldn't help drinking quickly trying to cure the thirst eating away at her. Sophia could slowly feel her thirst fading as it curbed a bit. She turned and walked back to the car, and sat on the hood waiting patiently for Emmett's return.

Hours passed where she sat in silence, only listening to the sounds around her, and then she decided that maybe he wasn't going to come back and join her. She hopped down from the car, and stopped when she saw Emmett walking toward her, his shirt torn. It looked like the bear got a swipe at him, and he looked far from amused.

"Did you even leave to hunt?" Emmett asked.

Sophia rolled her eyes. "Of course."

He paused to look at her, and after only a moments notice he turned and walked away again, leaving her standing alone. "Where are you going?" She asked walking after him.

Emmett ignored her question and ran off, and Sophia stopped mid-step. He didn't want her to follow him, and she wasn't going to. She couldn't keep fighting to create a friendship, or a family bond somewhere that it was clearly not open as an option.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sophia walked into the familiar house, it was nighttime and Edward was off at Bella's house for the night. Alice and Jasper were nowhere to be seen at that moment they were probably just spending some alone time together away from everyone else. Esme and Carlisle were sitting on the smaller sofa in the open room once they entered it, each reading something. Carlisle seemed to be reading something that happened to be in French, and Esme was looking at pictures in a book on architecture, furniture, and interior decor in the early 1900s in Europe.

Emmett said a quick hello, and quickly left to his room. Carlisle and Esme looked at Sophia as if waiting for her to explain what had happened on their hunting trip, and why everything seemed to still be just as it was when they had left.

_Did something happen?_ Carlisle asked the concern in his voice was being mirrored in his eyes as he held her gaze.

Sophia shook her head. "We didn't speak at all except for that he said it took me long enough to get to the car before we left the school, and then to ask if I had actually hunted, and then finally to tell me to get in the car because we were leaving to go back home after days being alone."

The two looked confused at each other. "I don't understand why Emmett is being like this with you. You've done nothing wrong, dear." Esme commented. She rose from her seat next to Carlisle and slipped an arm around Sophia's shoulders trying to console her.

"It's nothing, really, it's okay. I don't mind. I'm just going to go up into my room for now. I want to spend a little time alone."

"From the sounds of it you already spent an entire weekend alone." Carlisle commented as he rose to stand in front of her, taking her hands into his. "Don't let him push you away from this family. You belong here just as much as anyone else, I know it. Nobody is going to change how I feel about you, I love you like my daughter, and so does Esme. We want you here..."

Sophia nodded silently, looking down at the floor in between herself and Carlisle who remained in front of her. She felt a gentle hand turn her face, and she found herself looking back at Esme. "Why don't you play the piano for me? I would love to hear a song that you've written. Could you? I love it when you or Edward plays..." Esme asked.

For Esme, Sophia would practically do anything. It wasn't hard to feel a rush of affection towards her new motherly figure. She was gentle, loving, and kind in a way her mother had not been and Carlisle more fatherly than any man she had ever seen before. These were her parents. She would gladly die protecting them, and would do everything in her power to make them happy. If Esme said she had wanted the actual moon to be a necklace she could wear, Sophia would find a way to make it happen, or die trying.

She walked over to the grand piano that was Edward's as her small piano remained in the small house she no longer lived in full time, but kept as a sort of getaway if ever she needed space and time alone, which happened often when Emmett was concerned. She set her fingers down gently on the familiar feeling keys, and sighed. This was the one way she could guarantee to take her mind off of anything that was going on and let herself drift off into some place imaginary. This was always her way of relaxing and refocusing on things that remained important in her life.

She began playing a song bittersweet and fairly simple at first, and then began to get complicated, slowly she eased into the main simple melody. If her life could be a song, this would be it. This was a song compromised of notes and music she played on the spot and had never thought of before. When the song ended she thought to herself for a moment, she would need to play that again and see if she couldn't write it into a better and perfect song. Sophia looked up to see Esme looking at her with a smile, and yet she appeared moved by the music she had played. She then moved into Esme's favorite song, happy of the fact she learned it from Edward. She had altered parts to make it more into her style of piano playing. The two of them were different, and although she loved listening to Edward play, his music was different from hers. Esme would constantly mention how she wanted Edward and Sophia to combine their styles, saying how it would be a beautiful thing.

Sophia kept her mind occupied for hours playing music for Esme when Alice and Jasper walked in the door and smiled at her. She brought the song that she was playing at that moment to an end and followed Alice and Jasper back out into the unusually dark night.

Jasper sighed, and blurted out, "It didn't go well... I can feel it."

She shook her head, "It went about as well as I could have expected, I suppose."

Alice let out a "hmph" and crossed her arms at that statement. "That's ridiculous. I know for a fact that it could have g-"

"Alice..." Jasper said in a warning tone.

She looked at her two friends exchanging a knowing glance between each other. "I'm missing something, what am I missing? Did Alice see something that pertained to me?"

Jasper rolled his eyes. "No... it was nothing."

Sophia could see that neither was going to say what was going on. "You know I could just as easily go into your mind when you're not expecting it and find out for myself."

Alice glared at her best friend. "No, you will not, and don't worry whatever it is that's in my mind isn't all that important so you can try and look if you want to, but you'll see nothing that would shock you."

She sighed in defeat. "I'm getting tired of fighting a losing battle with him. I'll get farther banging my head against a steel pole."

"Just hang in there, Soph, he'll come around." Alice put her arm around her friend's shoulders and pulled her into a hug.

"It's been months, and months of the same thing everyday. The same anger, the same bitter comments, the same wordless and cold atmosphere..."

"He'll come around, don't worry."

"I'm not worried anymore. I am now to the point that if he does come around then I might be worried about his motives and intentions."

Alice giggled a little and they all went back into the house. Esme was looking up at them concerned. "What's going on?" She asked.

"Nothing, just having a little bit of a pep talk. I think that things are going a little differently than anyone hoped they would." Alice answered, giving Sophia a supportive look.

She stood there for a moment spacing out while Jasper, Alice, and Esme exchanged some more conversation before she decided what she was going to do. "I'll be back later, I'm just going to go and clear my head."

Sophia ran upstairs, stuffed her keys in her pocket, and ran back downstairs and out the door before anyone could ask her what was going on. She hopped into her car, and looked up to see Emmett staring back at her from the garage. He looked slightly confused, and almost as if he wanted to stop her to talk to her, but she slammed the car into reverse and sped down the long winding driveway leaving Emmett standing there looking after her, with disappointment on his face. She could care less at this point if something she did disappointed him, he didn't care, and that was just a realization she would have to live with for the rest of her existence.

She pulled into the driveway of her small getaway and ran into the house sighing at the comfort, silence, and familiarity. Her piano sat exactly where she had left it, and she sat on her bench, touching the keys and playing a little Chopin. She rose not even halfway through the song to grab a book from her wide library of books, and sprawled on the floor on her stomach so that she could read. The silence was something she enjoyed very much, and the fact that there were no other people there to wonder what was wrong anymore. She missed this house, and it made her think of moving back where trouble wouldn't follow her anymore. Throwing the thoughts out of her mind she focused on the book, and forgot everything that was happening around her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next day Sophia drove herself to school, as she had managed to stay in her small cottage alone the whole night, and when she stepped out of her car she found Edward, Alice, and Bella standing there behind her car staring back at her.

"Where did you go last night? We waited for you to come back. We called, and you never answered..." Alice stated, concern on her face. She had noticed Sophia was in new clothes and looked curiously over her friend.

"Oh, I just needed some time away from all the drama. My phone..." She thought for a moment. Her phone was still in Emmett's Jeep. She would definitely need to get that, of course that would require actually speaking words to someone who didn't want to exchange even the slightest 'hello' with her. "My phone's in the Jeep still. I must have forgotten it."

Alice nodded, and Edward sighed. "So, I take it that nothing has changed. I thought that this trip would do them some good, but I guess I was wrong."

"It's not my fault. He just disappeared without a word, or anything, he came back once to ask me if I had even hunted and I had... but I was waiting for him to see if maybe he wanted to find more with me, but he didn't. He just left again, too fast for me to follow him."

"You could have caught him." Alice commented.

"Maybe, but something told me that he didn't exactly want me to follow him."

Edward groaned. "You should have just followed him and made him speak to you. You two need to talk about this... it's not good for anyone, not even the family."

"Don't worry, I know the family would side with Emmett before me if anything happened, and I would step away if the need be."

"No!" Bella cried. "That's not fair, you're alone! You can't leave her alone for who knows what to come after her!"

"Words coming from the girl who is being hunted by a rabid female vampire on the revenge warpath, and a group of royal vampires wanting to make sure that she is now one of us or else we will all end up dead." Edward stated, with a smirk on her face.

"You're not going anywhere, don't worry. It'll get resolved before any of that happens."

The day went by like any other school day would for her, and lunch came quickly. As usual the group was separated into those who got along with the Cullen family, and those who did not get along with them, or didn't care to. She sat silently listening to Angela and Ben talk to Alice happily, like they normally did these days. Bella and Edward were talking about something together, while Sophia sat alone, listening to everyone.

"You okay, Sophia?" Someone asked. She looked up to see it was Angela, who was looking concerned at that moment.

She forced a smile and said. "Oh, yeah, I'm just spacing out thinking about something we did in class today."

"Yeah, I understand that feeling." She replied.

The day ended a lot faster than Sophia had really been hoping. Alice had decided she would ride home with her and so she drove immediately to the Cullen's house before she got herself into trouble. Some part of her thought that Alice was trying to avoid letting her disappear to her secret hiding place, and she was coming with her to intentionally keep her from doing another disappearing act. She had the clothes she had been wearing the previous day in the backseat, wondering what Alice thought of that as she pulled up into the driveway in front of the large, and beautiful house. Once she was parked she looked up to see that Emmett was in the garage again. He appeared to be working on his Jeep, and he was watching her carefully while holding tools in his hand as he stood over the open hood of his car.

Sophia grabbed the clothes from her backseat hastily and rushed to the house before he could say anything insulting. Esme was walking towards the stairs holding blue prints and she paused to smile one of her winning motherly smiles of affection.

"Oh, Sophia, I'm so glad you're back. Are you all right?" She asked, turning herself to give Sophia her full and undivided attention.

"Yes, I'm fine. Working on a new project?" Sophia asked.

Esme looked down to the blueprints rolled up in her hands and smiled. "Oh, yes, this is a project that I want to make sure is completely perfect before we start work on it. It's a surprise that I know will come in handy later."

"That sounds nice."

At that moment the door opened behind Sophia, and she didn't need to look to know that it had been Emmett. Jasper came down the stairs to find that Alice wasn't with them. "Hey Soph! How was school today?" He asked happily, pulling her into a quick hug and flashing a handsome smile across his face.

"Oh, you know, same thing it always it." She couldn't help smiling back at him as he was obviously controlling her emotions at that moment.

He threw his head back in laughter. "Well, good, at least it wasn't a bad day. Where is my darling, Alice?" He asked politely, looking around the room again as if he would find her there. She knew he could sense if she was there without looking, they had a special connection that nobody else would ever fully understand.

"She's still outside, although I'm not quite sure why." Emmett answered from behind her.

Sophia had not been prepared to hear the sound of his voice and could feel her body flinch at the sound, and yet immediately relax. She shook her head and walked toward Esme. "I'm going to go and find her then." Jasper commented, running out of the door.

A phone rang out, and Sophia reached for her pockets, then realized when they were all empty she still needed to get her phone from Emmett's car. As it turned out the phone call had been to Emmett, and he was on the phone talking quickly. Alice and Jasper were already rushing in the house, and Sophia knew that she had seen what was happening without being in the room at that moment, by the look that was on her face.

"Jasper and I will be on our way then, we'll take a look around... be careful, Edward." He said, and then hung up the phone.

"What's wrong?" Esme asked.

Emmett took a deep breath. "Edward said that when he and Bella got back to her house there was this scent..."

"Werewolf?" Jasper asked.

He shook his head at his brother. "Vampire..."

"Let me call Carlisle. He needs to be here in case something is happening." Esme interjected, rushing up the stairs and disappearing into one of the rooms.

"It's nobody's scent that he knows?" Alice asked.

"No, he said he doesn't know it." Emmett replied. "We need to be really careful."

His eyes landed on Sophia for a moment, as if he was telling her that she needed to be careful, or... maybe he wanted her to be careful. She pushed away the urge to see what was going on in his mind so that she could find out. Maybe she was expecting too much out of that look and really he had been warning her because he thought she was trouble, but the look in his eyes that had shone through for that split second had been almost vulnerable and soft.

She shook the thought out of her mind. "So, you and Jasper are going to see if you can trace the scent, and maybe catch up to it?" Sophia blurted the question out to Emmett before she realized where the words were directed. _I'm worried about Jasper... that's why I asked. I'm not worried about Emmett, I couldn't be worried about someone who doesn't worry about me either, it was because of Jasper, for Alice's sake._

Everyone had seemed to freeze at the sound of her words to him. They were awaiting Emmett's response to see if he would continue his cold streak. To their surprise his eyes went back to her face, holding no hostility. "Yes, he wants to see if someone can track whoever it is down, and he's bringing Bella over here, so he can't do it. Jasper we need to get going before it's too late." He finished, turning his attention back to his brother.

Jasper nodded, his hand touched Alice's shoulder softly, but he wouldn't look into her eyes. He followed Emmett out of the house quickly leaving the two girls standing in the open room staring after them. Alice's eyes seemed to go distant almost as soon as they went out of the door. She knew that Alice had purposely tried to focus on anything that had to do with Jasper's future. It was natural for her to be worried about the one person who was meant for her.

Esme came rushing down the stairs, the blue prints no longer in her hands. "He is on his way... where are Emmett and Jasper?"

"They left to go and see if they could find a trail leading them to the scent that they found in Bella's house." Sophia answered.

"Alice?" Esme asked.

Sophia looked quickly to see that Alice was now walking over to the sofa and sat down. "I don't know how I missed it. Edward is going to be so mad at me."

"No, he wouldn't be. It isn't your fault that this happened."

"He told me to watch over Bella, and make sure nothing like this happened... I didn't see the Volturi sending anyone, and now there's some strange vampire that has gone through Bella's house... they could have hurt Charlie... oh no, what if they hurt Charlie. I didn't even see anything about Charlie..."

Sophia and Esme sat on either side of Alice, comforting her. "Calm down, it wasn't your fault. I'm sure that if anything happened to Charlie, then Edward would have told us." Sophia replied.

The first one to walk into the house was Carlisle. He was still dressed nicely from working at the hospital, and he looked at the three that were sitting on the sofa. "I'm lucky that I had already put in some extra time already, I said I needed to head out because it was an emergency and they let me go ahead, almost pushed me out of the door. Okay, someone tell me what is going on."

Sophia ended up telling him what was happening, explaining even Alice's complete miss of this surprise visit. As soon as she finished telling Carlisle everything Bella and Edward were rushing through the door. There was a look of terror on Bella's face, and Edward just looked completely furious.

"We had to stop by the police station to make sure Charlie was there, and safe. He is." Edward stated before anyone asked why it took them so long. Then his attention turned on Alice. "How could you let this happen! You were supposed to be watching them!"

"Edward..." Carlisle's calm voice sounded through he room with a sound of warning.

"I was! I don't know what happened. I completely missed it. The Volturi didn't send anyone, I would've seen it."

"You're waiting for them to command someone to come? Are you insane? You should be watching for someone to just go missing from them... I doubt they'll send direct orders..." Edward was starting to get even worse.

"Edward..." Bella called this time.

"No! She is supposed to be watching to make sure that this doesn't happen, and here we are. There is some strange scent in Bella's entire house."

"Some of my stuff is missing." Bella added.

Everyone turned to look at her. "What did you say?" Edward asked.

"Some of my stuff is missing, I noticed it after you said it was okay in the house and you went to search around outside. I went to my room, just in case I was going to need to pack up my things, and I was missing a pillow and some clothes."

"Great, so, some strange vampire came into your house... stole things, and yet Alice still didn't see it." Edward commented angrily.

"First off, I think that you need to calm down Edward. It is nobody's fault that this happened. Please do not go pointing fingers at Alice. You have her watching a lot of things, something is bound to slip."

"This is the most important thing!"

"I know it is Edward! I've been watching so carefully. This had to have been spur of the moment, and someone that none of us knows..."

The door flew open and both Emmett and Jasper walked in. Emmett held a branch out to Carlisle. "This has it's scent. We chased it down, but it appears that whoever it was got in a car and headed out of here. We were too late. Do you know that scent?" Emmett asked hopefully.

Carlisle shook his head, holding it out for Esme to smell. She shook her head. Everyone took a turn and nobody could recognize the scent. "Okay, so we're in mutual agreement that it is nobody that we have come across before. Which would make it possible for Alice to miss because how can she watch for something that she doesn't know is coming, when... ah, Edward, let me finish. How can she know it's coming when it didn't come in contact with Bella, or Charlie. There's no way she would have known a strange vampire was coming unless it would have come in contact with either of them." He explained.

"I'm sorry, Alice. I'm just worried about Bella."

"We all are." Alice said quietly. Jasper was at her side, an arm around her, the two whispering to each other quietly enough that nobody else could overhear.

"We're going to need help." Sophia commented.

"Why do you say that?" Edward asked.

"I think she is right. We're going to have to start keeping watch of watch over Bella's house because... I think that this is tying in to the murders that have been happening in the area." Carlisle commented.

Alice looked at Jasper. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I told Carlisle that I think someone is trying to start a vampire army. It's the only logical explanation, and whoever it is had not learned to control the newborns. They are going to be difficult to control, no matter what, but... this is something that could potentially be dangerous. I'm surprised the Volturi hasn't stepped in yet to stop this from happening."

"Vampire army?" Bella asked.

Jasper launched into a story about his history, one of which Sophia was able to see in his mind as if she were there... and it was a sad story. She felt bad for Jasper having gone through everything that he did. There was no way he could have controlled that situation, his manners are what got him in the end he was trying to help these girls, and they ended up turning him into what he was now standing there looking at all of them.

"At least it's a happy story in the end." Bella commented.

Edward's head turned to her fast. "How can you say that was a happy story? Did you hear any of it at all?"

"No, that part wasn't happy, but he got to meet Alice... if he hadn't been turned into this then they never would have met." Bella explained.

Alice and Jasper smiled at each other. "It just would have been nicer had this not been the reason they met." Emmett said.

"Well, we will have to keep a watch over Bella's house. Constant rotations of two."

"I don't want you guys to do this..." Bella protested.

"It's not up to you now is it?" Edward asked.

"I still think that we're going to need help with this. We're not enough if it's a vampire army that is just attacking random people throughout the city." Sophia said.

"What about Jacob?" Bella asked.


	5. Chapter 5

Five

Sophia pulled into the driveway at the large Cullen house and climbed out of the car. Everyone's cars were parked there, even Carlisle. She fought the urge to go inside and sit on the comfortable sofa next to her adopted father. He and Esme always had a sort of calming effect on her whenever they were in the same room together. She sighed and turned to face the thick groupings of trees to her right. She took off running through them. She had promised Edward that she would be at Bella's house within minutes to relieve Esme of her duty as she had been patrolling around Bella's house for two days because of Jasper leaving on a hunting trip with Alice.

When she was close she slowed to a walk and could smell the faintly unpleasant smells of Bella's friend who had, more than likely, been running around her house for days on end because his friends didn't care too much to assist vampires in any way. Sophia felt bad for Jacob, he was making a good effort at getting along with her, even if he and Edward hadn't made any progress in the least. She could see him from a distance and she sent a hello to him knowing he would hear it in his head. She could still remember the first time she had done that with him, and the look of shock. Nowadays, he would only send her a hello right back, no longer taken by surprise at the sound of her voice crossing his mind.

Sophia followed Esme's scent and found her looking out through the trees in the opposite direction. She turned before Sophia reached her and smiled brightly. "Ah, only one person could ever smell as you do. How was school today?" She asked.

"Oh, it was okay."

"Just okay?"

"Same thing as it usually is. Nothing different."

Esme patted her shoulder and said, "No worries though. Has Jasper returned from his hunting trip?"

"No, and I haven't heard from Alice yet, either. I'm guessing they'll be on their way back soon, but that is why I am coming to relieve you of your watch duty. I promised Edward this morning that if I hadn't heard from them I would come and take over for a little while." Sophia answered. "Who's around the house with you?"

"Well, it was just Jacob and myself for a little while, but it looks like nobody else has shown up just yet. I'm going to go and meet with Carlisle. Be careful Sophia." Esme gave her hand a slight squeeze and quickly disappeared in the trees.

Everything was normal for a while. Bella and Edward spent time inside her house together, and Sophia did her best to ignore anything coming from inside from conversation to sounds of her cleaning or cooking. It was their privacy, and not for her to intrude on. She felt the breeze that rolled through the trees and out of the corner of her eye she saw Jacob's head jerk up from where it lay over his paws, and with that breeze came a scent that she would recognize anywhere. Her head snapped in the direction that it came from and Jacob turned to look back at her. She tried to act nonchalant about what was incoming, but the anxious feeling eating at her won over, and it took all she could to not allow her face to betray those feelings.

Finally, out of the corner of her eye she saw the figure pacing around the perimeter that she and Jacob had been watching together. She knew he was looking in her direction she could just sense it, and although they were separated by a large distance, they could see each other clearly. She continued walking slowly, and felt her foot slip on something hard, and uneven. If she had not possessed the abilities that she did she knew she would have fallen, but as she had amazing balance, and reflexes she only looked down to see that she had stepped on a large rock that slanted down in a steep, almost vertical angle. She remembered suddenly that she was wearing a pair of heeled black boots that came halfway up her calves over top of her jeans.

A pair of nice brown shoes stopped in front of hers and she looked up quickly into the face of the person standing only inches away from her. "I thought you were about to fall there..." His voice came out in almost a whisper, and she noticed his hands were almost touching her arms but remained about an inch away from actually making contact.

He took note of her observance and dropped his arms to his sides. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." She answered looking away from his eyes.

"Sophie..." Her name came from him like a pleading whisper.

She turned to look at him quickly. "Don't..." She made her way around him and continued on her circular path around Bella's house. His hand grabbed her arm and stopped her. "Emmett..."

"No, I need to say this otherwise you will never listen to me."

She stood still, refusing to turn around and face him. "Then tell me."

"I wanted to say... how sorry I am, really, about the way that I treated you when we went hunting together. It wasn't fair to you, and I should have just..."

"What's done, is done, Emmett. You don't need to worry about it anymore."

"You see, that's the problem. I've been pretending not to worry about it, but in all actuality it's practically the only thing I can think about. I want to like you. I want to stop this ridiculous thing that we have going on. I've been trying to find faults in you, reasons to continue my already forced dislike towards you, but I just can't anymore, there's nothing left for me to use against you. Trying to hate you is like trying to deny what I am..."

Sophia sighed in frustration and turned to face him. "You can stop the lies, Emmett. It's okay if you don't like me. I think I can survive knowing not everyone in the world likes me."

It happened so quickly that she almost didn't have a chance to see what was coming, but it was there as she stood in the middle of trees, in the view of a werewolf, and within hearing distance of Edward while she was supposed to be focusing on protecting Bella... she was there kissing Emmett Cullen, the one member of the entire family that had been strong in his dislike for her. The one person who she could have sworn would hate her forever.

The kiss only lasted a moment, but felt like it lasted forever in a sort of suspended time, a different realm all their own. She felt his hand touch her chin for a moment, just lightly. He stepped back quickly, a smirk on his face as he walked past her looking over his shoulder and went back to doing his watch. Sophia stood there shocked for a moment, her first real kiss. This was her first real kiss, and she didn't even have a moment to prepare. Her hands suddenly sped to feel her hair, and make sure that it was in place. She tugged on the hem of her shirt to make sure it was all smoothed down. Did she look put together today? She couldn't remember if she had made an effort to look pretty. She didn't even know if she did a decent job actually kissing him. She lacked the experience that she knew he had.

_Ew, vampire love... just what I wanted to see on my patrol duty around Bella's place. Just so you know, you look pretty today half-vamp, so don't worry about trying to fix yourself._ Jacob's thoughts ran through her mind as she stood there staring at him apologetically.

_Thank you._ She replied back to him.

_It's the least I can do for my only vampire friend..._ She and Jacob had gotten fairly friendly with each other, well, as friendly as they could being that they were naturally supposed to hate each other. She knew that it was the part of her that was still human, such as her heartbeat, and that she wasn't completely ice cold like the other vampires. He felt that there was something there worth fighting to get to know.

She turned around to find Emmett already halfway around his stroll watching the perimeter. She turned back again to continue hers so that Edward wouldn't reprimand her for her lack of concentration to the important task that she was being charged with. The smirk on Emmett's face returned again as they passed each other, this time passing each other with at least a ten foot distance between them. Each looking over their shoulders and back at the other until they couldn't keep looking over their shoulders anymore.

Sophia found a piece of tree trunk that was laying on it's side she sat down staring off on her section, listening closely to her surroundings for any shift or sound that might alert her to someone coming. She could hear, and smell Jacob coming up behind her and she sat patiently. He was standing there as a human in only a pair of shorts. He sat next to her and she focused on his thoughts.

_So, what's up with you and the big scary vampire?_ Jacob asked, his eyes staring off into the woods.

_What do you mean?_

He turned to smile at Sophia. _Don't play stupid. You and that other bloodsucker have a thing going on, don't you?_

Sophia glanced behind them to see Emmett walking quickly over the span of open space that was not being watched by either of them before she turned her attention back on Jacob. _One, stop calling us bloodsuckers or I might have to go back to not liking you. Two, I don't know what's going on seeing as... well... he hated me yesterday, and today... he does THAT._

_If you were both human then maybe I would tell you that it's actually a bit romantic what he did. He can't fight that hate he wants to feel for you. I guess you're special, you got him thinking about something else aside from that blond that he used to be with._

Sophia sighed, she hadn't forgotten about Rosalie. There was never a guarantee that she wouldn't just pop up out of nowhere and demand to have her man back. She didn't even know if Emmett would randomly decide that what he did had actually been a bad idea. She was just afraid of what could happen should things change the way that she was thinking they might. Not to mention the whole family wouldn't know what to think.

Suddenly a vibrating feeling came from her pocket, and she pulled out her cellphone to see that Alice was calling her at that moment. "Hello? Alice?"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!"

"Um... tell you what?"

"Oh, don't you dare start playing smart with me right now. You know exactly what I'm talking about right now and I want you to be up front. You're not getting off this phone with me until you tell me what I want to hear. So.... go..."

"Alice, I honestly have no idea what in the world you're talking about. Actually, you're sounding a bit crazy to me at the moment." Sophia replied, hearing Jacob laughing beside her, and then she turned to see if Emmett might have heard her, and he was looking over at her also laughing, but shaking his head at the same time. He knew, it was obvious. With a scowl she turned back to face the scenery in front of her, away from the faces that continued to laugh at her expense.

"Oh, fine, if I have to spell it out for you then I will. You know how I can't see your future unless it impacts someone else's."

"Right."

"Well, it just so happens that I just saw something concerning someone. Why didn't you tell me that you and Emmett were getting along now?" Alice asked.

"That would be... because it just happened..."

There was a slight pause in her usual quick witted response. "Oh... that would make sense."

"How much do you know about this anyway? What have you seen?"

"See, that's hard to say because... it's so confusing his future. I saw him talking to you. I saw him laughing with you... and I saw him hug you. Those are all good signs, so I'm just predicting that he has finally decided to just give up his ridiculous mood."

Sophia could feel the relief. As long as Alice didn't know yet. She didn't want anyone else to know yet, not before she figured out what was really going on in this whole situation. "Well, let's hope it stays this way." She whispered to Alice.

"I would ask you why you're trying to be all secretive and whispering but... I have to go... Jasper and I are almost at the house, but I just wanted to see what was happening because you hadn't called to tell me... I thought that you were trying to keep a secret from me. I was going to be very angry with you."

She laughed at Alice's antics. "You're just being ridiculous because you know very well that I wouldn't keep anything like that from you. There isn't a point anyway. I just figured I would be able to talk about it in person..."

"Don't worry we're not done talking yet." Alice replied quickly. "We'll talk later. Okay... okay Jasper... oh, you can wait and tell her yourself..."

"Well, now Jasper knows too. So, can you ask him to just wait before the both of you decide to relay the information to the entire family?" Sophia asked.

"Oh, sure, sure."

"Thank you."

"Talk to you later. Have fun with your watch duty over there with your new friend." Alice commented with a little giggle at the end before she hung up.

Sophia stuffed the phone back into the pocket of her jeans with a grumble. "Sounds like the little fortune teller saw something that you didn't want her to see. So, how come you won't tell her about you and that big guy over there?"

"That would be because I don't want her to question me for hours and hours about how he kissed me, how he looked. Was he happy with it? Did he look disappointed? Would he talk to me afterward..."

Jacob stood up and walked away quietly without making a comment, and as she watched him walk away she almost jumped when she heard the whisper in her ear. "I was happy... No, I shouldn't have looked disappointment because... I was hardly disappointed, far from it actually, and believe me you might get sick of hearing me talk to you from this day on."

She smiled to herself, and when she looked for him she saw he was already on the side of the woods that he had been watching earlier. He made no move to show that he had been whispering in her ear just then. She walked around again until it was time for her relief to show. Carlisle soon walked up with Jasper at his side, and Sophia smiled at them both. Jasper had a knowing smirk on his face, and she could tell that he wanted to say something about Emmett, but he held the urge back.

"Esme is waiting for you and for Emmett back home." Carlisle patted Sophia's cheek.

Sophia began walking in the direction of the house and smiled to herself as she saw out of the corner of her eye a familiar figure measuring his pace with hers stride for stride. "You don't have to walk with me, you know."

"We're headed in the same direction, I'd rather it be with your company than without."

She stayed silent for most of their hike back home. Emmett walked near her and careful not to touch her, but she couldn't help sighing when she felt his arm brush against hers just once, and so lightly. Heat rushed to her face, she knew she was blushing now, and tried to duck her head so he couldn't see it. He stopped her and turned her to face him.

"No, don't hide..." His finger gently lifted her chin so she looked up at him. "I like that you blush sometimes."

She smiled shyly and then they continued their walk, his fingers occasionally touching her hand as though he wanted to hold it, but he refrained. The house soon came into view and Emmett drifted behind Sophia allowing her to gain a few feet of a lead. She was first to walk into the house, and Emmett followed a little while after, and they exchanged a smile and a knowing glance before he left to go up to his room and Sophia went to find Esme.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

(A Couple of Weeks Later...)

Bella was spending the night at the house again, as Edward was off hunting with Jasper this time. It was always hard to see how Bella would always seem so lost once Edward would leave. Alice, Esme, and Sophia all had made promises to Edward that they would do their best to keep her mind occupied in his weekend-long absence.

Right at that moment Sophia was sitting at the piano working on a song that she was currently writing, as Bella, and Alice were sitting on the couch watching the TV silently. Alice was paying more attention to the newspaper that was spread over her lap than what was happening on the ridiculous show that was currently on. The front door opened to the house and Esme walked in, closely followed by Carlisle and Emmett. Sophia felt her heart skip a beat as her eyes locked with Emmett's for only a moment, he flashed an innocent and inconspicuous smile in her direction before turning to follow those he had walked into the house with.

Alice was too quick to catch the glance that Emmett had made at Sophia, and she was smirking in her friend's direction. Sophia was quick to go back to the song that she was trying to work on. She wanted to do anything that would keep Alice away from questioning her as if she were in the midst of a Spanish Inquisition.

"Bella, dear, come and eat some food. I brought you Italian again, this time from a little place in Olympia that I happened to be by earlier today." Esme commented, as she came into the room.

Bella rose quietly from her seat and walked into the kitchen with Esme leaving Alice alone with Sophia, exactly what she had been afraid would happen. She had managed to keep Alice at enough distance so that she could never ask what was going on before, but now there was no hope. She flitted to Sophia's side in a blur and sat next to her best friend.

"Okay, there's nothing you can do now, you need to explain to me what's happening. I've been watching the two of you for a while now. You guys are acting like you aren't friends, but like you're hiding a secret, and then today he walks in and smiles at you." She whispered softly enough that only they could hear this conversation.

"It's nothing, really..."

"Oh really? Is that why I've seen Emmett kiss you in the future?" Alice asked bluntly, keeping her voice down as not to embarrass her friend any more than she already appeared to be.

Sophia couldn't stop the traitorous blush that formed on her face at the words that had come from her friend. "I don't know what you're talking about, Alice."

Alice threw her head back in a laugh. "Oh no you don't. I've finally figured it out... Emmett is in love with you. He wants to be with you, and let me guess you're afraid that it's only a temporary thing because he may be lonely due to Rosalie's absence."

"I can't just be with him... what if it's only temporary, his like for me... I can't afford to fall in love with someone who is only going to see me as a sort of replacement for the relationship that he used to be in. The relationship that he wishes would return to him..." Sophia whispered back, acidly.

"I think that you deserve to be just as happy as the next person. Believe me when I say that Emmett might have, at one point, loved Rosalie, but it was more lust than anything. Also, Rosalie was a demanding woman, she told him how to live his whole relationship and he had no control. Emmett is a very fun loving guy, he is usually the happiest of us all, but even you can see that he's a man in every sense of the word. He is the type of guy that wants to provide for... well, for lack of a better way to describe it in Emmett's terms, his woman... Either way, he had no control, but he is the type who should never be run over. He never had the same problems that the rest of them had with becoming what we are and that was because he held Rosalie on this high pedestal for saving his life. He couldn't betray her because he felt like it was wrong, but she kept screwing up and their separation was a long time coming if you ask me. I knew it was going to happen eventually, but I didn't know that this was how and why it would happen for obvious reasons."

Sophia looked over at Alice. "Why didn't you tell him? Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"Edward knew... he happened to hear my thoughts at the first moment that it happened, but he swore he would never tell, in hopes that maybe it wouldn't happen. The future is subjective after all, it can change if you want it."

She sighed as Alice's statements played around in her head. Emmett walked into the room with Carlisle at his side and they were whispering to each other. Sophia couldn't help herself as her eyes sought his the moment he entered a room. Emmett's eyes only held hers for a brief second, but the longing look in them spoke for itself. Carlisle, who had happened to look down at the moment that Emmett's eyes held Sophia's, missed the quick exchange and they continued their conversation sitting down on the couch that sat next to the one Bella and Alice had been sitting on just a moment ago.

Alice jabbed Sophia in the ribs. She quickly made eye contact with her friends and Alice pointed to her head. She focused on Alice's thoughts and was shocked at what she found. She saw the whirling images, of Emmett and her sitting together on the couch where he currently sat with Carlisle, they were close and laughing with each other. His arm reached forward and brushed the hair away from her face, his fingers lingering on her cheek. The vision quickly changed into another one, and the two were walking hand in hand, Sophia leaning her head against Emmett's arm, her small frame looked even tinier next to his large one, and yet she felt a sort of rush of calm and protection ran through her and she continued to watch the vision as he touched her face with his free hand quickly, and then bent down to kiss her before smiling and wrapping his arm around her as they continued on. Then it switched to another view the two were holding hands facing each other, and she looked very excited about something, and he looked just as excited, and at the same time he looked as though he could never be happier. She was wearing a crown of beautiful flowers, with what looked like a veil, and Sophia pulled out of Alice's thoughts.

"No..."

"I've seen it..."

"How long has it been since you've seen that last one?" Sophia whispered to Alice.

"I just saw it... after this last look that he gave you when he was walking back into the room. It's so clear, Soph, usually any vision including you is almost slightly blurred it's so hard to see what happens with you, but it's almost as if this is supposed to happen."

"Alice..."

"Maybe you should give him a chance. Have the two of you already kissed?" Sophia looked down at the ivory keys. "You have... and you didn't even tell me!"

She said this louder than she was supposed to, both Emmett and Carlisle looked up at them. Sophia tried to keep her gaze off of Emmett as she rose from the piano and ran up the stairs quickly. Alice wasn't about to let her off that easily. She followed her friend up the stairs and into the room, closing the door behind her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell that." Sophia didn't answer, her gaze remained on the scenery outside. "Well, are you going to tell me if it was at least a good kiss?"

Sophia felt the smile cross her face even though she tried to hold back from showing any emotion at all. "Do you want me to tell you all about it?" She asked as she sat on the sofa in her room.

Alice jumped up and down giddy, and plopped herself next to her friend. She began to tell her best friend everything that happened. Alice was completely absorbed in every word of the story and even giggled excitedly at parts, clapping her hands together.

"So, then out of nowhere he just... kisses me..."

"OH!" Alice exclaimed. "I didn't even know that Emmett had the ability to be a hopeless romantic like that... okay so... what happened next..."

Sophia explained the smiles, and then she told her about when they were walking home how he kept himself close to her the entire time, and brushed up against her arm with his. Sophia smiled at the memory of the shock that ran through her at just the small gesture, and how every time he came into a room now she couldn't stop her eyes from finding his even if it only lasted a split second before they would go on pretending things hadn't necessarily changed.

"You know, Emmett really likes you, Jasper's told me already. He can feel it coming out of Emmett... and... you're not fooling the family. They know something has changed because the two of you can stand being in a room together, but they don't know why that is different. They don't know that the two of you are basically falling for each other, and being afraid of it. They are just enjoying the civility between the two of you. They have a feeling of hope now that things will be okay in the end between everyone in the family."

"Who I need to speak to is Edward, I need to know if he's heard anything from Emmett..."

"No, he hasn't. I asked Edward one day just nonchalantly if he had noticed why things between you and Emmett were not so tense as they used to be, and when he tried to listen to Emmett's thoughts he was very careful to keep you out of them. I think he wants it to be a secret between the two of you..."

"Why would he do that, do you think?"

"He probably wants to know that the feelings you have for each other are genuinely between the two of you and not anyone else influencing anything. Really, it's a smart idea."

There was a soft knock on the door. "Can I come in?"

Another skip of her heart betrayed her feelings for the source of the voice on the other side of the door. "Yes."

"I'm going to go..." Alice stated, rising gracefully from her seat and walking towards the open door where Emmett stood, like a perfect stone statue of some god-like warrior.

She closed the door behind her leaving Emmett alone with Sophia. They stared at each other for a moment before he crossed the room pulling her up off the couch. He touched her face softly and sighed. Sophia's heart beating rapidly, making her feel incredibly human at that very moment, and she wondered how Bella could endure this same form of embarrassment.

"Did you need to... to talk to me about something?" Sophia asked, her voice wavering.

Emmett flashed a smile before kissing her quickly. "Well, yes... actually... I did need to talk to you about something..."

Sophia politely stepped out of Emmett's reach, walking slowly over to the view of the woods and small river that ran behind the house. It was more an effort to get herself under control so she wouldn't seem so pathetic at the sight and feel of him. She tried with all her effort to keep her attention on the scenery that she already had memorized. Emmett couldn't help but smirk at the nervous blush that had already begun to form on her face. He could tell that she was trying very hard to keep her eyes away from him. He felt a rush of feeling swell up in him as his eyes ran over her petite frame. He knew she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, and just as difficult to kill as he and the rest of the family was, but she always looked like somehow she needed someone to protect her. The audible portrayal of how she felt about him from the rapid beating of her heart, and the constant blushes made his heart swell with feeling towards her.

"Well, then..." She began.

Emmett took a few steps towards her, leaning back against the couch slightly. Sophia could see out of the corner of her eye that he looked like the type of man you would see on an expensive designer add the way he was leaning against the couch at that moment.

"Sophie..."

She looked at him for a moment at his nickname for her had slipped out, and she forced herself to turn her attention back on the outdoor scene before her face betrayed her emotions again. "I think that the both of us know by this point that it was about time for this to happen... at least, I feel that I'm ready for this change..."

"What change?" Sophia asked, trying to keep her voice level.

"It's time that we try to be more than just friends. I know that our friendship is new, but I think we are farther than all of this. I want to have an opportunity to be with you... as more than friends. Of course, this all comes down to whether you want to try..." There was a pause in his talking and then he continued, "I know I'm not the easiest person, and I know that I've been horrible, but if you could overlook that I promise to you that it will never happen that way again."

Sophia contemplated his statement. "What does this entail? A... date? Or do we just bring this up to the family as a relationship, there it is, and that's that?"

Emmett smiled, "I like to think that our family is a little more intelligent than that. I think that they already know that something is different, and I've heard them talking about our amazing new friendship. Maybe if we were to tell the family that we are together they wouldn't be all that surprised."

"Maybe..." Her mind racing with the ideas of what would happen if they told various members of the family. Alice already knew... but what would Edward say? Jasper, also knew. What would Carlisle think? And Esme, what would her opinion be?

"Right now, I want to keep it between us. I came up to just ask you if it would be okay with you if... we spent more time together..."

Sophia couldn't help the smile that formed on her face when he said that. He seemed as nervous about saying those words to her, as she was about hearing it. She giggled quietly to herself for being so ridiculous.

"What is it?" Emmett asked. "Did I say something, or do something?"

She turned to face him shaking her head. "No, I... you'll think I'm being so stupid..."

Emmett smiled, "I know why you were laughing."

"What?" Sophia asked.

He sighed, "Don't be mad at me... I want you to understand that it is this ability that has made me change my mind..."

"I don't... I don't understand..."

"I don't know what it is... I don't know why it's just me, and I know it's just me, I asked... but... I can hear your thoughts Sophie. Everything that crosses your mind, I hear it, I see it like it's my own."

At first she didn't know what to say, and then she blurted out the next statement without thinking it through, "Then WHY did you treat me the way that you did?"

"I promise you, it was really hard for me to stay angry at you. I basically just kept my stubborn mind set on the fact that I lost Rosalie because of you..."

"But..."

Emmett was in front of her, his finger over her lips to keep her from saying anything. "No, let me finish. It's hard not to like you when one, everyone loves you, and two... I knew who you were... I knew you didn't do anything..."

"But you were... so..."

"I know." He whispered. "I know..."

"I tried so hard to figure out what I did wrong..."

"And I know that too. I just hope maybe... maybe you'll forgive me." Emmett replied, stroking her cheek softly. He leaned towards her, and kissed her lightly. "Can you forgive me for being stubborn?" He whispered in her ear.

She was losing her resolve, shivering slightly at the feel of his lips close to her ear. "I-I think that maybe..."

"Do you think that maybe we could spend a little more time together? I've asked Carlisle if maybe we can go hunting together... that I owed that much to you because I was so rude to you the first time."

She pulled back to look into his face. "And what did he say?"

"He said we could go this coming weekend. He also told me that if I upset you again he will never let me anywhere near you again, and that you're too good to deserve the treatment that I've given to you. I can't say I disagree, he makes a valid point."

Sophia laughed, "Well then, how about you change that?"

"That's my intention, so long as the lady accepts..."

She nodded, a smile on her face. Emmett grinned widely and pulled her up into his arms spinning her around. "I promise it will be different this time..." He declared, setting her down gently.

"I know it will be."

"Well then, I better get back down there and talk to Carlisle again, I told him I had to ask you about hunting quickly while he was on the phone, and I'm sure he's off of it now."

With a nod she watched him, biting her lip, as he stepped out of the room. His head peaked around the door for one last glance, as his eyes danced with excitement despite their obvious darkness, and then he was gone. _"I promise it will be different this time..."_ His words resonating in her head again as she stumbled back to the sofa.

She... was now together with Emmett Cullen... who could have believed that? She let her head fall against the back of the sofa as she stared up at the ceiling replaying the events that had just happened. She must have done something to deserve this happiness...


	6. Chapter 6

Six

The weekend came in a flash, quite fortunately for Sophia. Emmett and she had managed to keep their newfound relationship a secret to all, except for Alice, and by extension Jasper, both of whom swore on their eternal lives that they would not tell anyone whether it be a verbal conscious slip, or an unconscious thought of a slip they promised they would pretend to forget it was happening so that the thought of their relationship wouldn't cross their minds therefore giving away the secret. Sophia packed a change of clothes, her cellphone, her iPod, and a notebook so that she could write music, or lyrics if she so pleased.

Alice was leaning with her hip against the old fashioned desk that shelved old black-and-white pictures of Sophia and other people, and various places that she had been and thought were beautiful in their own right. Alice happened to be holding one picture in particular that someone had taken of Sophia during the war. She was in a regular dress, a nice coat over top of the dress, and a cute beret sort of hat on her head, her hair was much shorter then, and the curls more exaggerated as her hair only came to around chin length. She was not looking at the person who had taken the picture, but her eyes focused on something else, the picture was of her profile and everything around her, although the scene around her was beautiful it seemed insignificant in her classic beauty.

Alice sighed, setting the picture down where it had just been and watched her friend frantically go through her bag to make sure everything was there. "You were a very beautiful human in your time." Alice commented as she looked back down at the picture.

Sophia's eyes followed her friend's gaze to the familiar picture. "Ah, well, I was just like any other girl then."

"I don't think so... the person who took this pictured captured you at your finest moment, or one of your finer moments then... because it's a breathtaking picture. It reminds me a bit of the first time I saw you at school. Even though you had a look of panic in your eyes, you were just... incredibly beautiful. Don't take offense, but the kind of beautiful like Rosalie... the two of you knock the breath out of people without even trying."

"Believe me, I was just another average girl in the time of the war. One who was displaced, and didn't know where to go, and had no other options but to join in the effort." Sophia explained with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

Alice took it as a sign to drop that part of the conversation. Sophia never really talked about the war time, and what she did. She was always so silent about most of her past. "Do you need me to help you make sure you have everything? Trust me you could go anywhere in tattered clothes, looked like you hadn't bathed in years, and looked like you rolled around in the dirt everyday and Emmett would still feel the same way about you."

A nervous giggle escaped from Sophia. "Well, you've been standing there the whole time, does it look like I've got everything?"

"I saw you pack every single thing that you told me to make sure you got." Alice replied.

Sophia eyed her friend suspiciously. "Are you sure you're not just saying that so that I stop trying to recheck?"

"I'm positive, and I'm also sure that if you don't hurry up Emmett is going to start thinking you don't really want to go with him, and let's not make him upset so soon in the relationship, okay? I rather like the two of you being all sweet to each other." Alice commented.

Sophia slung the small bag over her shoulder and followed Alice down the stairs to where Emmett stood waiting. None of the family was there except for Jasper who was watching the news on the television with a look of deep concentration, which seemed extremely odd to her. He didn't even move to acknowledge that she had come down the stairs with his own very special, and sometimes wildly aggravating love. Sophia knew Carlisle was at the hospital covering for another doctor, Esme was again pulling guard duty at Bella's house, and of course Edward was with Bella.

"Are you all right Jasper?" Sophia asked, before she reached Emmett who waited patiently by the front door.

He drew his eyes away from the news reluctantly, looking up surprised to find them all standing there. "Oh, bye Soph... have fun out there..." He turned back to the television, and Emmett pulled her out of the door before she could confront Jasper again. She did have a chance to catch Alice's concerned glance at Jasper before she was next to Emmett's car with it blocking her view of the house.

"Let Alice handle it. We are officially going away to forget everything that is going on here... this is a little bit of a hunting trip... and a getaway... all wrapped into one."

"But..." Before she could finish her rebuttal on the matter Emmett had wrapped her into his arms and kissed her.

"No buts... let's not worry about them, if it's something serious they will call us, okay? Until then, you and I... not them..."

Sophia nodded and climbed into Emmett's giant Jeep. He tossed her bag into the backseat along with his and then almost simultaneously was in his seat and starting the car. They were on the road in no time, and Sophia watched everything flash by her. Emmett looked over at her and grabbed her hand, holding it in his on his lap.

"So, where are we going to hunt? Or, should I ask what we're hunting?" Sophia asked.

"I figured I would take you with me to a national park... there are a few bears, some mountain lions, a few other random wild animals. Basically, the buffet of the vampire world. Take your pick, there's bound to be something that you like there. All of them have a little bit of a population problem so I wouldn't worry about what you decide to pick off." Emmett explained, kissing the back of her hand gently.

Sophia smiled and turned to watch everything pass by again waiting to see a familiar sign of where they could be headed. She didn't know what to say, no words could sum up the feeling of contentment that she felt at being with Emmett this way. Never in her wildest dreams would she have ever imagined herself falling for the one person in the family that originally disliked her. He was her complete opposite in looks, she wasn't falling for one of the leaner guys, but the strongest, tallest, and in her opinion most handsome one. Now that they were actually talking to each other Sophia wondered how she had ever gone a day without his smile, his laugh, and just the general good mood that he exuded about life as a whole.

"You are a bit biased though, if I do say so myself." Emmett commented.

Sophia laughed, of course he was hearing her train of thought. That was slightly embarrassing, but at this point she was making a constant fool of herself that it no longer mattered anymore whether he could hear her thoughts or not because if her thoughts didn't give her away, then her heartbeat, her constant blushing, or her inability for form coherent sentences around him gave her away. She sighed watching as they passed car after car, and she imagined the look on the drivers faces as they flew past them, giggling to herself.

Not too long after they had been on the road Emmett pulled off into a highly wooded area, and parked his car. He jumped out, opening, the door for Sophia and lifting her out of the high Jeep even though he knew she could do it herself. His fingers intertwined with hers as they made their way through the thick trees toward the clearing that Sophia could see ahead. Once they reached it Emmett released her hand inhaling deeply.

"Ah, there's a bear nearby..." He commented. "Would you like it?"

Sophia shook her head. "No, it's yours... I'll find something after you..."

Emmett walked toward the smell and found a large bear walking around and it appeared as though it was looking for food. The moment it spotted Emmett it began to growl at him, a smirk spread on his face as he took another step towards the large animal, easily at least twice his size. Soon enough the bear was on it's hind legs making loud menacing noises that would scare off anyone and anything else, but the two of them. Emmett growled right back, and played around with the bear as it towered feet over him, making it more and more angry before finally he could resist no longer and the bear was down.

Sophia felt the thirst inside her burn at her throat, and without waiting for Emmett she took off after the scent of a mountain lion that was nearby. She wasn't one who played so much as she enjoyed chasing her prey. The mountain lion offered her a cute little chase before she pounced at it and soon her thirst was better.

"That was quite an interesting little chase you had there. All in high heeled boots too... impressive." Emmett said as soon as her food was down.

She looked completely spotless, and Emmett looked down at his clothes and sighed. Another shirt ruined, of course. Soon enough he was going to run out of clothes and he would need to actually shop for more. He wrinkled his nose at the thought, and Sophia laughed at his silly train of thought.

"Don't worry if you want I can go with you and make your shopping life easier. I, for all intensive purposes, love to shop."

"Yes, I couldn't tell from the way you always seem to be immaculately dressed."

He took a moment to take in her clothes. She was wearing that same off the shoulder black sweater that he had first seen her in, and the jeans and boots. She looked exactly like he had seen her the first time, except somehow she looked so much more beautiful this time around. He was not careful to hide how beautiful he thought she was, and she smiled at him. Her cheeks were flushed with the feeding she had just had. It made her look like a fairytale princess, and he kissed her cheek softly before walking hand in hand.

They went back to the Jeep and talked for a while, Sophia even took some time to write some music for her own amusement. Emmett went hunting again on his own and Sophia occupied herself some more with her music, and she knew he might be gone for a little while, so soon enough she went off for another hunt.

Their weekend went by quickly. They spent a lot of time talking, and just relaxing together completely comfortable and at ease. However, reality called back to them, and they were soon driving back to the family, the moment that they pulled up Sophia knew something important was happening. They had arrived just in time because Jasper was about to call them back from their hunting trip, but as they came in through the door they noticed Edward looking panicked, Bella looking slightly relieved, and yet slightly scared. Alice did not look happy, Jasper seemed to be focused, Carlisle looked as though he were deep in thought, and Esme had a relieved smile on her face at the two who had just arrived, however her eyes had a hint of worry.

Everyone had turned to look at them as they entered the house and both felt as though they had stepped into a spotlight on a stage show that neither wanted. "Um... hi everyone..."

"Graduation is next week, let's just get through that first... and Alice hasn't seen any course of action yet so I think it will be safe to go on with life like everything is normal." Carlisle explained. After he stopped talking he pulled Sophia into a quick hug before turning to pace around the room.

"What happened? What's wrong?" Sophia asked.

"Well, it seems as though there's a vampire army completely made for the sole purpose of destroying Bella... we had looked at it wrong... so wrong..."

Sophia had been taken by surprise at the words. "Why would an entire vampire army be after Bella, I don't understand."

Edward looked over to her and the flash of James dying made Sophia nod quickly at him. "So, who made this vampire army to do this?" Emmett asked.

"The Volturi are one idea... the other Edward believes is Victoria." Carlisle answered.

"It can't be the Volturi because they clean up these types of things. Plus, I highly doubt that they would go through all the trouble to create one and let them run rampant killing people left and right. It is a danger to exposing us, and they would not be so careless. Victoria, on the other hand... if she didn't quite know what she was doing it would make perfect sense as to why this is happening. Also, the Volturi are so powerful and have many weapons on their side that I doubt that they would bother making an army, they could kill Bella without all of this." Jasper explained.

Emmett looked over to Alice. "How many?"

Alice sighed. "It looks like it's in the twenties right now. The numbers keep changing... they get higher and then lower it's a disaster."

"I think we can handle newborns." Emmett commented.

Sophia took the opportunity while nobody was looking at them aside from Alice and Jasper, to smack his arm. Bella stood up from where she was sitting next to Esme. "I will NOT let you risk your lives to save me. There are only... well not that many of you and twenty or more powerful, newborn vampires? No!"

Edward sighed, "We have experience on our side, and intelligence, they're new they won't know how to fight."

"I don't care... I can't risk any of you being hurt!" Bella cried. She was beginning to lose all control of her emotions.

Sophia smiled over at Jasper as she felt a calm spread through the room. "Bella, I think you worry far too much."

Her eyes turned on Sophia. "You're afraid too. I know you are. You're not going to want to go around all of those newborns because you smell human too. They would kill you."

"Drinking from me would not kill me, but... if they so decided to try pull me apart and burn me... then okay... maybe then I would die." Sophia said. "Twenty newborn vampires I imagine would make me weak very fast."

"See! NO! You especially will not be risking your life!" Bella yelled.

"I think she has a point there. It's too dangerous to let you fight too, Sophie." Emmett whispered softly.

She looked over at him. "I can do this. You just have to watch my back. I'm just as strong as you are... okay, maybe not you, but I'm just as strong as the rest of the family."

"It's not a good idea... you do smell human, to an extent."

Sophia hissed at him. He only smiled. "We could always put it up to vote with the family." Jasper suggested.

Alice sighed. "Right now is not the time. It's too early, we have plenty of time, and everyday I'm able to see more and more about the plans. Just give me a little time, I will warn you the moment they decide to come. At this moment they are still trying to wait and see if their numbers will grow at all."

"Then it's decided. Bella, Edward, Alice, and Sophia... you will finish school and then we will decide from there what happens. No need to make people suspicious when you're so close to being finished with school." Carlisle stated.

Edward put a hand over Bella's mouth before she could protest and he said, "That sounds like a great idea to me."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The week went by slowly for Sophia. Final exams took place every single day, and then there were graduation parties, the senior events, graduation practice. These were all things she had experienced before, but she didn't care to sit through this again when she knew that they really needed to be working on tactics for how to take care of the problem looming over their heads. She sighed as she finished her exam in only a minute.

Emmett had entertained her quite a bit, he had been sneaking to her room to talk and sit with her while he could. If Sophia decided to play the piano, then he would sit in the same room and talk to her through her thoughts. She loved having their little secret and at times when Edward would be in the room they were silent, just enjoying each other's presence as it would be too risky to talk to each other through thoughts since Edward could hear Emmett's.

When it was finally graduation day things were a little hectic, between Alice convincing her to help with the decorations for the party they were having which would have the entire senior class coming, along with many other people, there was a lot to do. That morning Sophia found herself in the kitchen with Esme and what looked like terrifyingly large piles of groceries that seemed to go on forever, bags and boxes covered almost every surface of the kitchen.

"Um... Esme... are just the two of us going to cook ALL of this?" Sophia asked as she pulled out a box of noodles.

Esme laughed at the overwhelmed look on her daughter's face. "No, not just the two of us. Surprisingly, Emmett has volunteered himself to help. He's grabbing the last of the groceries at the moment, should be in soon..."

"There's MORE?" Sophia groaned.

"Remember that this party is as much for you as it is for Bella, and Alice... and Edward..." Esme reminded her.

"Yes, I know, I know... but Alice has the easy part of all of this. She just has to throw up decorations. I could do that just as quickly. Cooking requires TIME, and I do not think we have the time for all of this to be cooked."

"Oh, you worry far too much. We have all day, plus it is only two in the morning. You're lucky that Emmett was willing to go to the twenty-four hour grocery store all the way in Port Angeles at all." Esme stated.

"I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT THE DECORATIONS PART IS NOT EASY!" Alice yelled from another room.

"And I'll take a bet that Jasper is HELPING you at the moment." Sophia commented.

Alice appeared in the room and glared at her best friend. "Just because I have the best man in the world, does not mean you can pick on me for having help. I have a lot to do... plus, you have..."

"Alice..." Sophia warned.

"Er... there's a man helping you too. And, I'll wager that Carlisle is going to help Esme with all the cooking as well." Alice said and then turned to walk back towards the spacious room in which Sophia knew had probably been converted into something completely different than what it was a moment ago. "So, that makes FOUR of you... and two of us. No more complaining from you."

"Where's Edward? He should be helping with this." Sophia grumbled.

"He's with Bella, where do you think he is?" Alice asked.

"Yes, but he's getting off so easily because he's with the human..." Sophia sighed. "I'm whining, but I just don't want to have to cook all of this."

Emmett walked in with armfuls of stuff piled in front of him, that nobody could even see his face. Carlisle followed with a few more bags. Esme gave Carlisle a reproachful look. "I promise that I offered to carry some of this, but he has decided to try all on his own." Carlisle said defensively.

Once everything was set down Emmett laughed. "I really wanted to see how much I could carry. If it makes you feel better Carlisle is carrying the stuff that could have been broken, or ruined had I tried to pile it on."

Sophia giggled, and Emmett flashed a quick smile at her. _Show off._ Sophia thought.

_Only for you... if you were impressed then all is right in the world today._ He thought back.

"Okay, where do we start first?" Carlisle asked.

Esme looked around at everything and then said, "I think maybe we should start with the things that can be refrigerated, things that don't necessarily have to be hot."

"We bought warmers, and containers to put in them, I think we'll be okay with the hot stuff. We thought ahead, it's like we have our own catering service just for the day." Carlisle pointed out the large boxes set over by the door, piled on top of each other.

"Oh, should we set those up now?" Esme asked.

"No, Alice and Jasper have offered to make that part of their decoration duties to lighten our load." Carlisle answered.

"Well, let's get started then. I was thinking of making a fruit salad maybe... or we can just cut up fruits and set them on a platter, what do you think Sophia?" Esme asked.

Sophia shrugged, "I say why don't we go for both. It looks like we have enough for both..."

They had soon cleared off the large island counter space and everyone set to work with the fruit they had been assigned. Emmett thought of something that made Sophia a little nervous. _I think now is the time... we should tell Carlisle and Esme..._

_Are you sure? Do you think that would be a good idea?_ Sophia wondered.

"That's a GREAT idea!" Alice exclaimed. Fortunately, neither Carlisle or Esme thought anything of it other than Alice possibly commenting on a suggestion from Jasper, but Sophia and Emmett knew better.

"Ahem." Emmett cleared his throat dramatically, and Sophia's eyes narrowed in his direction. She saw a smirk form on his face.

_Fine! _Sophia thought.

"Esme, Carlisle..." Emmett began. The two standing opposite of them looked up with matching questioning smiles. "Sophia and I needed to tell you something."

"Oh?" Carlisle asked.

Sophia stole a glance at Emmett out of the corner of her eye and saw he suddenly appeared just as nervous as she was. "Yes, well, you see... I know that the family has noticed us getting along quite well lately..."

Esme's smile softened. "I have noticed, and I am so happy that the whole family is getting along well now."

"Yes, well, that's not everything. See, Sophie and I..." The nickname had not gone unnoticed by the two, as they exchanged a quick look with each other before turning back to Emmett. "We have... well... I don't know how to say this other than, I've fallen in love with her..."

"Oh, Emmett!" Esme cried, setting her knife down.

"And Sophia, how do you feel about Emmett?" Carlisle asked.

Sophia and Emmett stared at each other, "I've fallen for him too..." She answered quietly.

There was a quiet that hung over the room, Alice and Jasper had walked in, and then Esme was suddenly hugging Sophia. "Oh I'M SO HAPPY! The two of you deserve this happiness!" She exclaimed, pulling Emmett into a hug next.

Once Esme pulled back and regained control over her emotions, and still looking overjoyed Emmett continued, "I wanted to make sure that the two of you were okay with this decision. If it would mess anything up with the family... well, the family comes first... but, I don't think I would know how to live a day without loving Sophia now... I guess, if it upset you I would try..."

"Nonsense. Esme and I are both completely elated by this news!" Carlisle exclaimed. He pat Emmett on the shoulder, exchanging a knowing and loving look at his son. Then he turned and held his arms out for Sophia. "Soph... oh my little darling, I'm so happy to hear this..."

Esme looked over at Alice and Jasper who stood watching everything with smiles on their faces. "Let me guess, Alice saw a shift in Emmett's future, and knew that this would happen... you've known all along."

"I have." Alice replied.

"And by extension you knew too..." Esme pointed to Jasper.

Jasper nodded. "It's hard not to know when it's news on a great friend of mine. It was interesting liking someone who was part human, before every other family member. It usually takes me more time."

"I'm special, admit it, Jasper." Sophia commented.

He rolled his eyes, his normal perfect gentleman's composure slipping for that moment. "I don't have to tell you that."

"Were we the only ones who did not know?" Esme asked.

Alice and Jasper both shook their heads. "No, we kept it a secret from Edward as well." Jasper answered.

"Emmett?" Esme turned her question.

"I wanted to know that what I was feeling was true, and not something pressured by anyone in the family. Alice and Jasper were incredibly detached from this whole situation. I know Alice lent support to Sophia as a friend, but Jasper fortunately said nothing. It was nice to realize that I made this decision based off of true feelings rather than convenience... like last time." Emmett explained.

"It must have been hard, not letting Edward know." Carlisle stated, going back to his fruits as Esme had as well.

"Probably one of the hardest things I've done. Edward has always been there to support me, I'm not trying to insult either you Carlisle, or you Jasper..."

"No offense taken." Jasper said quickly.

"It's just that Edward has always been the one to lend support whenever I needed it, and he had no idea what was going on. I just hope that maybe he understands my reasons for keeping it to myself." Emmett finished, and continued with his fruit again.

"Edward will understand. If anyone will understand the need for that privacy it would be him." Jasper replied, giving Emmett a pat on the back before turning to leave the room.

Everyone went back to preparations for the party that would not wait. At around six in the morning Edward walked into the house and found everyone getting things ready. He walked into the kitchen to see what was going on.

"Oh, wow, Emmett I didn't know you had such a domestic side..." He commented with a laugh.

Emmett threw a pineapple at Edward, and glared. "I was just helping. There's a lot here to do. You could stop being selfish and help us. It is YOUR party after all."

"Sure, sure. I wasn't the brilliant one who came up with the idea. Besides, I do not enjoy human food in the least. I'm afraid that I would not know what to do with all of this." Edward gestured to all of the food in the room.

Sophia rolled her eyes. "Really Edward, you act as though you could never learn."

"Everyone here looks really happy today? Did we forget we have a stressful situation on our hands?"

"No, of course we haven't forgotten, Edward." Carlisle replied.

"We have received good news, I'm sure even you could find it in your heart to be happy about this." Esme added.

"Oh? What's the news?" Edward asked, leaning his hip against the counter, tossing the pineapple in the air and repeatedly catching it.

"Well, Edward... I know that you've asked me about Sophia and I getting along lately. I just told you that I decided it wasn't worth making the family uncomfortable anymore... but there's more to it now."

"What happened?" Edward asked, suddenly interested.

"Sophia and I are..."

"We're together, Edward." Sophia finished.

Edward looked confused at first, he met each set of eyes as if he were looking for a confirmation. Then his face broke out into a smile, "I KNEW YOU COULD FIND SOMEONE! Emmett, she's perfect for you."

Emmett smiled at Sophia, "I'm beginning to see that."

"What made you come around in the end?" Edward asked.

"I can hear her thoughts..." Emmett replied.

Edward almost dropped the pineapple he was holding. "You can... what?!"

He shrugged. "I don't know, it's kind of odd really. I can just hear her thoughts. It's almost like we're supposed to be together. It's like vampire imprinting..."

Sophia laughed at that, and then said, "Believe me, I was quite angry with him when he first told me that all of this time he could hear my thoughts."

"Yes, but when I didn't want to like you before it was harder to hear your thoughts because I was pushing you away so much. Now that I welcome every little bit of you, I hear it clear as day. Anywhere you are... while you are all at school and everything. It's amusing really."

Edward looked fascinated. "Is it the same way for you Sophia? Can you hear him no matter where you are?"

She sighed. "No, unfortunately not, otherwise I'm afraid I would never get work done if he were constantly talking to me. My ability works the same for everyone. I have to admit, I am more attuned to him though. I don't have to focus on him alone. If there is something he wants me to know he only has to... it's like talking to me in my mind. We have to be in the same room, just like me with anyone just as long as he and I are in the same room I can hear his thoughts until I focus on one person alone that isn't him."

"Incredible..." Edward mumbled, he appeared to be deep in thought at the moment.

"SO! About you helping us!"

Edward came out of his fog and smiled at them. "I suppose I can do that. I told Bella I would give her some time with Charlie today anyway. It's a day for family, and I do not want to intrude. As it appears my family has some good news, I think I can spare a few minutes to celebrate with them." He hugged Sophia with one arm before grabbing a spare knife and cutting into the pineapple.

The cooking went a lot faster than Sophia originally thought it would especially since there were five people doing it and not just one. The last few things were set in the oven, perfectly timed to be finished by the time the graduation was over, and soon Sophia found herself climbing into her car with Emmett driving, Alice and Jasper in the back. Carlisle and Esme wanted to make sure that the food was all ready, and they wanted to drive themselves so that once the graduation was done they could speed back to their house to finish any food preparations that may need to be done.

Emmett parked the car and walked reached for Sophia's hand as they walked with Alice and Jasper to the door where they would have to drop off the two girls. "Oh, I wish we didn't have to wear these things over top of our clothes. You and I look absolutely beautiful, and we have to hide it." Alice groaned.

"I think if either you let people see you as you are dressed then nobody would function at this graduation." Jasper commented, kissing Alice on the cheek. "Now go, get your diploma... again... and then we will get the party going. Sound good?"

"That sounds fabulous! I will see you in a little while."

Emmett kissed Sophia lightly. "Good luck." He whispered after her.

Once they were in the building Alice yanked Sophia towards her. "I believe that the two of you might make everyone insanely jealous if you keep it up."

"Why do you say that?" Sophia asked.

Alice made a slight gesture with her head signaling to those behind them. She turned to find Jessica and Lauren whispering to each other, but seeing as she could hear everything it was pointless, of course they didn't know what Alice and Sophia were so they thought they were being honestly quiet.

"Can you believe that Sophia is dating the older Cullen?" Jessica asked.

"He's scary." Lauren replied.

"I don't think so, I think he's gorgeous, of course Edward is cuter, but... we all know what he settled for." Jessica added.

"Well, that one... what was his name? Emmett? He is cute, I guess... I don't know where Dr. Cullen finds all these family members but I wish that maybe one of them would just look normal."

"They'll have one if Bella and Edward ever decide to get married."

"I don't think Edward would ever do that. Someday he'll find someone so much better than Bella, and he'll drop her. He already got bored with her once, I think it could happen again."

Sophia rolled her eyes in Alice's direction. "Do they honestly think they know anything about our family?"

Alice giggled, and then waved as she walked to her part in line. Edward and Bella arrived soon afterwards. Sophia waved to Bella where she stood in the back of the line with Jessica chattering away at her. Edward touched Sophia's arm lightly as he passed, flashing a smile at her. The entire graduation ceremony went fairly quickly. Emmett and she were having a conversation, at which Edward could hear Emmett's side and occasionally Sophia spotted him laughing. The moment that the ceremony was over Edward flew to Bella's side to talk to her, but something happened at the moment that Sophia reached Alice that had Edward freeze in place and stare over at the whole family.

Sophia forced herself to listen and see Alice's thoughts. In her mind she saw the decision for the vampire army to come to Forks. They would be here in a week. Sophia looked up at Emmett and he nodded at her thoughts. Carlisle and Esme had already gone and did not know what was happening, but Edward, who had excused himself from Bella and Charlie was making his way towards them through the packed space. He squeezed through family after family.

"Alice, are you sure?" Edward asked.

She nodded. "I'm sure."

"Should we cancel the party?" Emmett asked.

Jasper looked questioningly at Sophia, she pushed her thoughts into his mind. _Alice saw the army coming, they will be here in a week._ He nodded mouthing "thank you" to her for informing him. "I think it's too late to cancel the party most all of the senior class is expecting to go so we should go through it just to make sure we don't alert them of anything going on."

Everyone knew that Jasper was right. They couldn't cancel the party, but they needed to find help soon or things would not go very well for them. They walked together towards the car, Sophia heard her name called out.

"Sophia! Wait up!"

She turned to see Jacob jogging toward her. "Why is that dog calling you?" Emmett grumbled.

"Oh, stop. He's a friend. Plus, I think right now is hardly the time to be rude to anyone that Bella likes and gets along with. Poor guy didn't ask to be a werewolf." Sophia explained, she broke from the group hearing Emmett call after her.

"We don't have long, so be fast."

"Congratulations on graduating... again..." He mumbled, shoving his hands in his pocket and looking over her shoulder at the Cullens all watching her talk with him.

"Thanks, what brings you here?" Sophia asked.

His eyes came back to her. "Well, I figured Bella... and you, you are my friend you know. Even if you do smell a tiny bit bad. I can overlook that. So, I heard there is going to be a big shindig at your place tonight."

"Yep, you should come, Bella would like that." Sophia stated.

"I would... except..."

Sophia heard Jacobs thoughts before he said anything, and she smacked his arm. "JACOB BLACK! You did NOT kiss Bella!"

"OW!" He grabbed his arm and then said, "Um... yeah... I kinda did."

"That would explain her broken hand."

"I didn't tell her to try and punch me."

Her eyes narrowed on him. "I know you didn't have to go and kiss her without her permission. What were you thinking? You're going to have Edward kill you if you do that again."

Jacob's eyes went past Sophia again. "Oh, I've already been warned."

Sophia looked behind her to see Edward staring at them. "Try NOT to make Edward mad. He's being nice letting Bella go to La Push. It's hard for him, you know?"

"Well, it's hard for me to never be able to see Bella."

She sighed and patted Jacob's arm, laughing slightly when he flinched away from her at first. "I know it's hard, but Bella and Edward love each other."

"I love Bella."

"I know you do... but she's with Edward."

"She deserves her options. I just wanted her to know that I'm here... I'm willing to take her with open arms if she ever decides that she wants me instead."

Sophia only shook her head at him. "You must be crazy, but a good crazy. I can't say I'm on your side for that one, but who knows... maybe someday you will find someone to imprint on and then you won't feel the need to be with Bella."

Jacob huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't think so. Everyone keeps imprinting, and I haven't found anyone yet..."

"Key word yet, plus, it's not going to be easy for you to find someone if you don't ever get outside of La Push, and Forks." Sophia pointed out.

He rolled his eyes at her. "Everyone keeps telling me that."

"Because it's true."

"I still think I am supposed to be with Bella, and so I'll keep fighting."

"Good luck with that, friend."

"Don't worry I'm staying pretty positive." Jacob said.

"Is Bella even speaking to you now that I know you're the reason for her broken hand?" Sophia asked.

"Um... not really."

"And Edward has warned you that if you ever kiss her again without her asking he would seriously injure you... I'm thinking Jacob that maybe you need my good luck." Sophia said with a laugh.

He glared at her. "Thanks, FRIEND."

"Don't worry Jacob, I still think of you as a friend, just a seriously delusional one at the moment. Either way, I think you should come to the party tonight. I think even Bella can't possibly stay mad at you forever."

"Are you sure Edward won't be mad?"

"Edward knows that you and Bella never stay mad at each other very long. He's thinking it's okay that you come, so long as you try not to do anything irrational again. He wants Bella to stop pouting and have her friend back."

"I'll think about it. Hey, I gotta go, but thanks... for the invite. It's nice of you to try."

"There will be food there... just in case you needed another incentive."

Jacob stopped and turned to face her. "Not blood, right?"

Sophia laughed, "No, real human food. I promise."

"Lots of it?"

"Tons and tons."

Jacob looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe I'll seriously consider coming then. Bye Soph."

Emmett and Jasper ended up sitting in the front as they were the two biggest out of all of them, and the other three climbed into the backseat.

"I don't think I like your car so much anymore Soph." Edward grumbled as he sat cramped against the side of the car.

They reached the house, and Edward disappeared quickly. Everyone else made their way in to discuss what Alice had seen, and to prepare for the party. They told Esme and Carlisle everything they could so that they had time to compose themselves before the party began.

"No, it was a good idea to go ahead with the party, we'll come up with a plan. Let me call Tanya." Carlisle said.

Alice groaned, and Sophia sighed when she saw Alice's vision. "Of course, thank you Irina you just ruined it for us."

"So, what are we going to do then?" Sophia asked.

"I don't know right now everyone is so undecided on the plans that I can't see what's going to happen, of course... I don't know if I will be able to see what happens with you unless everyone has the same definite plan that includes you..."

Emmett wrapped an arm protectively around Sophia and kissed the top of her head. "Don't worry whatever happens you'll be safe."

"I know."

Carlisle turned to everyone. Bella and Edward walked in the door. "What's the plan?" Edward asked immediately.

"I don't know, Edward, Tanya and the clan in Denali won't help us because of Laurent's death. Irina was more attached than we knew she had been." Carlisle said.

Edward growled. "Damn him!"

"Edward..." Bella whispered.

"We need a plan... Alice, how many are there?" Jasper asked.

Alice paused for a moment. "There are twenty-three." Everyone was easily nervous about that number. "They're about to arrive soon, we need to get the music going."

Alice disappeared to grab her collection of music, and everyone else quickly changed into what they would wear for the party. Sophia opted to stay in her electric blue, halter, cocktail dress that came to her knees. Her shoes were black she had but a blue ribbon in her hair as a sort of headband that matched the color of her dress.

She came down the stairs after making sure she looked all right and she couldn't help the blush that formed on her cheeks when Emmett smiled at her and his thoughts ran through her mind.

_You look incredibly gorgeous._

_Thank you._ She looked down at the steps, and paused on the last step, the doorbell had finally rung. She waited for Bella to open the door and let in the first wave of party members. The lights were pulsing, and the music was loud and a bit contagious. Sophia inhaled deeply before she joined Bella in greeting all of the people that were coming in. Saving Bella from Jessica's never ending chatter.

"Thank you." Bella whispered to Sophia.

More, and more people kept arriving, and Sophia soon found herself against the stairs again, watching everyone dancing to the music, talking, and eating the food. Nobody could stop the shocked look from forming on their face when they walked into the house.

Bella seemed to be pulled in a million directions, and Edward was nowhere to be found, along with Alice, Jasper, and Carlisle. She was beginning to get suspicious of what was going on.

"My dear, you should not look this lovely, and yet... so sad." Emmett's voice sounded in her ear as he walked around to the front of her and pulled her towards him.

"Oh, I'm not sad, I'm just thinking... wondering." Sophia said.

"I know... I hear your mind going a million miles a second. Would you like to dance with me? I believe a slow song will play soon."

"You believe? Or is this more like you're in with the DJ so you put in a request and they happened to say hello?" Sophia asked, as she was pulled towards the floor of moving bodies.

"Hmm, I think it might be a little of both... more the latter?"

A slower song began to play and some couples stayed in the middle of the floor, and Sophia joined them with Emmett. She couldn't help but giggle at how she had to reach so high to put her arms around his neck. She felt like she was completely enveloped by him, which in her opinion was one of her favorite aspects of being with Emmett.

"I like feeling like I can protect you." He whispered in response to her thoughts. "So, love, have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?"

"The thought might have crossed my mind a couple of times."

"Can I tell you again?"

"If you'd like."

"Well, you look very beautiful, so beautiful in fact that I believe every person in this room to be jealous of you right now."

Sophia laughed. "I hardly think everyone is jealous of how I look, for example the boys."

"Oh, no, they are jealous of me... because I'm with the most beautiful woman in the room... and so naturally by extension that means they're jealous of you."

"Your logic never ceases to amaze me."

"You never cease to amaze me." He replied, and kissed her.

"We are being incredibly cheesy, I'll have you know."

He smiled down at her and pulled her closer. "I love how we're so cheesy, and we're not embarrassed to be that way."

"It's too late to be embarrassed by you."

"This is true."

"But I could never be embarrassed by you." She said, and leaned her face against his chest.

The song ended and at the same time the doorbell rang again. "Late guests. Hmm. I'm going to go and see if I can find Edward, Jasper, and Carlisle. I have a feeling something is going on as well. I'll let you know what I find out."

Sophia nodded, and Emmett kissed the back of her hand before walking away. She sighed and then immediately turned her head at the scent that filled the room as the door opened. "Jacob!" She exclaimed walking over to him.

"Hey, Sophia."

He was flanked by two friends who were a bit surprised at her easy greeting. "Hi, I'm Sophia, and you are?" She asked as she held her hand out to one of them.

He cringed away from her hand, but he answered her question. "I'm Embry."

"Nice to meet you, and you?" She asked, extending her hand to the other friend, who shook it cautiously.

"I'm Quil."

"Nice to meet you too! Welcome to the party. I think I can find Bella around here somewhere, so odd she didn't answer the door..." Sophia tried to stand on her tiptoes to see Bella through the people, but she could hardly see over anyone.

Jacob laughed at her, and then said, "You do realize I'm over a foot taller than you, and I can see Bella just fine from here."

"Oh... sorry..." Sophia said.

"It's okay, I guess we can't blame you for being so small. Really, it's a cute thing you're so small. Speaking of size, where is that giant boyfriend of yours?" Jacob asked.

Sophia rolled her eyes. "He's around here somewhere. He just finished dancing with me right before you came in."

"Ah, how sweet. Let me go and get Bella so I can give her this present before she runs away from me." Jacob said, looking into the crowd of people where Sophia couldn't see. "Guys, you can stay with Sophia, she's cool... promise... get to know her she's the coolest half-vamp there is."

"The only one that you even know." She stated sourly. "Hi guys, would you like some food? We've got a huge array of food, and I know you must be hungry... even a little bit?"

"Um... sure..." Quil replied and followed Sophia towards the large tables of food.

"Take your pick."

"Whoa! Did you cook this?" Embry asked in awe of all the food.

"I helped a little, but mainly it was Esme and Carlisle in the end. We had graduation today, so we had to leave before they finished, and then they came back to finish up the last bit of it while we were still at the school."

They were hardly listening as they each piled two plates full of food and began to stuff it into their mouths. "Oh my... I did not know that vampires could cook, but I think that you guys can adopt me." Embry said through a full mouth.

_Sophie, it doesn't look good..._ Emmett's voice sounded through her head. She turned to find him standing against the wall by the kitchen looking out at her with a grim look on his face.


	7. Chapter 7

Seven

It was getting late, and people were beginning to leave the party little by little. Sophia kept a constant charade up for Bella, and for everyone so that nobody could see that something was definitely wrong. Soon right before the last group of people, which happened to consist of Mike, Jessica, Angela, Ben, Eric, Lauren, and Tyler. Sophia walked over to Emmett's side, he took her hand and she looked up at him worried about what was coming. What she heard in his thoughts were not something to be optimistic about. Alice was cleverly avoiding any room that I was in at that moment, knowing that even if she could defer Edward from finding out what she was thinking, that she could not stop me if she were anywhere that could be my line of sight.

Jacob, Embry, and Quil were still talking to Bella and Sophia could see Edward, Carlisle, Jasper, and Esme huddled together talking too quietly for Sophia to overhear. Alice finally walked into the room and then Sophia saw everything that had crossed her mind. If we didn't have help... there would be a couple of deaths, and Sophia didn't like that one of the deaths she saw in particular was...

"No, Emmett..." Sophia whispered.

He turned to look at her. "What's wrong?"

She could feel her lip quivering. "You can't... we can't do this..."

She knew that at that moment he saw what she had seen in Alice's mind. "Nothing is going to happen to me." He murmured, touching a hand to her face, but his look was serious. He knew that Alice's visions were nothing to take lightly. There was a reason that the atmosphere had turned stressful, and the look of panic in everyone's eyes was proof that things did not bode well for their family, especially not Emmett.

Sophia was no happier with the other death she saw. Her beautiful mother Esme... how would she possibly live without her? How would Carlisle cope with a loss that great? It was unfathomable to her a life without two important people. There was no way that she ever wanted to live a life without her beautiful, loving mother. If there was no way that she wanted to live a life without Esme, then living without Emmett was completely out of the question. She imagined she would probably find a way to die as well if he were to die.

She heard a hiss and snapped out of her thoughts to see Emmett's face, a look of warning and anger flashed across his eyes. "No." Was the only phrase that came out of his mouth.

"Something is going on Bella, and I think you need to tell us what it is. If it concerns that crazy vampire woman, we should know. It's just as much our right." Jacob said quietly to Bella.

The group of humans had already walked out the door, so everyone turned to look at the werewolves. "It's none of your business, dog, we are trying to protect Bella." Jasper growled.

"If it has to do with any other bloodsucker coming near, or onto our land, it's our business. So, tell us what's going on." Jacob said, crossing his arms over his chest again.

"There are vampires coming to Forks." Alice finally answered.

"How many of them?" Jacob asked.

"Lots..." Alice answered.

"How about we translate lots into an estimated number leech." Jacob suggested.

"Right now? We're looking at twenty-three." Alice answered again, not even acknowledging the name he had called her.

"Well, that's perfect... we can help you take them." Jacob insisted, a mischievous grin spread over his face as his eyes held hers.

Alice smiled. "Excellent!"

"What's excellent?" Sophia asked.

"The entire future is gone. In all honesty I will take it." Alice said happily, sounding relieved, and shrugging in reference to whether she could see the future or not, at this point she no longer cared, there was a perfect solution in front of her. "They will never see it coming."

Jasper lost his look of warning, and looked just as relieved as Alice did. "It's a great idea."

"You're really willing to team up with us to do this?" Carlisle asked in a very diplomatic tone of voice as to not offend their possible new, unexpected allies.

Jacob shrugged. "I'm willing to do it, it's probably the best crack at killing a vampire that I have, but... it's going to be hard to convince Sam that it's a good idea."

"Okay, we will start learning how to fight tonight... say, three in the morning? That gives you time to go back to the reservation and try to convince Sam. It also allowed Edward to take Bella home so that her father will not be worried where she is. We will see you in the clearing north of the station?" Carlisle asked.

"I think I know exactly where you're speaking of, we'll catch your scent either way if we need to and we'll find you." Jacob promised.

"Jake, you can't do this!" Bella exclaimed.

"Seriously Bella, give up trying to be so protective, it's annoying you have such little faith." Jacob stated rolling his eyes, then he turned and he walked out of the house. His friends followed him, both looking just as happy, and excited at this sudden opportunity.

"Really, Bella, there's nothing to worry about anymore." Alice insisted as she pulled Jasper with her up the stairs.

"Let's go, I need to get you home before Charlie finds another reason not to like me." Edward said, leading Bella toward the door. She seemed reluctant to leave, but she couldn't help following Edward's strong pull.

Sophia looked around to find Esme and Carlisle whispering to each other so quietly that she couldn't hear what they were saying to each other. Alice had already gone up the stairs with Jasper, and Emmett had managed to sneak away from her side while they were talking to the wolves. She went up to her room and went into her closet to look for something to wear. She wouldn't be able to learn how to fight if she was wearing a dress, and heels. As cute as she looked there just would not be a way without showing the werewolves, and the rest of the family, what was underneath her skirt. Instead of humiliation she opted for a pair of black leggings that came down to her knees.

She looked at herself in the reflection of the glass wall, and nodded. It worked with the shoes, and she could still look cute. Her normal everyday school wear would tend to be jeans, although they were always nice jeans, and some nice top, with some pair of heeled shoes that she managed to have. She didn't really get cold, it took a lot for her to begin feeling cold. There would have to be a massive ice, and snow storm in order for her to feel cold. She would have thought that the human part of her would be more sensitive to temperature changes, being that she could feel the difference in her temperature and her vampire family. It was true that to her Emmett's skin felt only slightly cool, as if he were a little cold and needed a sweater, but he didn't feel ice cold to Sophia, like Edward did for Bella. She could be in Emmett's arms and not feel cold, something different than Bella with Edward.

Sophia heard her door open, and then shut behind her. Without turning around she knew it would be Emmett that was standing there. He came up behind her, pushing her hair off her shoulder, and kissing her neck. She turned to face him, and saw that his eyes still looked every bit as serious as they had been a moment before. She heard his thoughts before he even had to say anything.

She sighed. "They don't think I should fight..."

"It's not that they don't think you're capable..." Emmett replied as Sophia turned and walked away from him towards the bookshelf that held all of her most favorite books, books she had read millions of times.

She shrugged, not turning to face him. "Why don't they just try and see if I can hold my own? Wouldn't that be a much better idea? Maybe if Jasper saw my ability and skill in fighting they would all change their minds."

"They're afraid that maybe the newborns would be sidetracked by the human they smell in you, and then they would all focus themselves on you... it wouldn't be good if you had twenty three newborns drinking your blood, and if one decides to tear you apart..."

"That's why the rest of you are there. I have faith in the fact that none of you would allow me to be killed by the newborns. I'm strong enough to fight, Emmett." Sophia argued, refusing to look into Emmett's eyes because she knew that he agreed with the rest of his family.

"I know that you're strong enough, but we can't allow the opportunity for them to get near you. Here's the other thing, Edward doesn't think that Bella is going to want to sit out. He thinks she is going to want to help in some way, and he's hoping that maybe you could watch her."

Sophia couldn't help the laugh that came from her. "I get to babysit the human?"

"You're part human as well."

"It doesn't matter that I'm part human, I am part... vampire. Emmett, I can hold my own in a fight!" She exclaimed, as she spun around to face him finally. The fire in her emotions fueling her argument.

"But, I can't help thinking back to the time when you came across Victoria..."

She shook her head. "No, you can't use that against me. That was something that took me completely by surprise. I wasn't expecting to have a random crazy woman trying to kill me..."

"Then how do you expect to fight twenty-three vampires?"

She let out one small sarcastic grunt. "I know they're coming, I'm prepared."

"Sophie, if anything happened to you..."

"Stop worrying about me, and let me prove to you that I can hold my own in battle. I do not want to be responsible for watching a human. I know Bella well enough to know that she isn't going to allow Edward anywhere out of her sight. She's going to be wherever he is, and I highly doubt that he is going to walk away from this fight."

Emmett sighed. "I can't... I can't let you, Sophie. I would worry about you the entire time, and then to top it off I would be trying to protect you... it just wouldn't go well."

"Then stop trying to protect me, Emmett, please..."

He looked away, a torn expression over his face. She knew that he didn't want her to fight, but he didn't want her to be upset either. He was torn between supporting her side against their family, or following the family and pushing for her need to be detached from the battle. Sophia gently turned his face to look at her, and she pushed herself up on her tip-toes to touch her lips to his for just a moment before she stepped away.

"I understand if you want to take the side of the family... I won't hold it against you if you continue to hold that view..." She whispered.

"Thank you."

"That does not mean I'm not disappointed that you have absolutely no faith in me whatsoever." Sophia added.

"That's holding it against me." Emmett stated.

"No, being angry with you, and blaming you... not talking to you, and holding some form of grudge... that is holding it against you. I'm merely disappointed, but I love you no less, and I'm not angry. I'm even completely willing to kiss you again at this moment..."

Emmett turned her to face him again, wrapping his left arm around her, and with his other lifting her chin up. "Well then, I don't know why I haven't taken advantage of that opportunity yet, but I won't waste any more time."

He kissed her again, pulling her towards him as she held his face to hers. There was a light tap on her door and she couldn't help but laugh against his lips when he groaned in frustration. He let her wiggle out of his arms reluctantly and went to sit on the couch looking as if he had been caught misbehaving. She opened the door to find Alice and Jasper standing there.

"Ah, come in, apparently it's a party in here." Sophia said, letting Alice and Jasper slide into the room.

"We figured Emmett was in here with you..." Jasper began.

"And we came to help him with his side of the argument about whether you could fight with us or not." Alice finished.

"I would rather you guys not bring that up right now... we had just reached a fine little moment of understanding. I think I might have convinced her had you not knocked on the door." Emmett growled.

Alice plopped down on the couch next to Emmett, a smirk over her face. "I don't know, I guess I would have to take your word for it."

"You didn't see an answer?" Emmett asked, looking hopefully into Alice's face.

"Nope, I think it's not a big enough moment. I can't see anything aside from what I have already seen between the two of you." Alice answered, waving Jasper over to her other side.

Sophia sighed and leaned back against the desk looking at the three on her couch. It looked so small with Emmett and Jasper's large frames sitting on it, and Alice squeezed into the middle. "So, I suppose the two of you are going to camp out in my room until it's time for us to go..."

Alice and Jasper looked at each other and then at Emmett and Sophia. "Um, yes, what else would we do until then?"

Emmett coughed conspicuously, and smiled knowingly at Sophia. Jasper laughed. "Oh, I see, the new lovebirds want some privacy, Alice."

Alice crossed her arms over her chest and sat back against the couch. "I'm not going anywhere. I think the two of you can spend some alone time together when we get back. Right now I want to spend time with my best friend, my love, and this... brother thing of mine."

Emmett rolled his eyes. "Great, and noooooow you want to be lovey-dovey with the family. Ugh."

Sophia couldn't help but smile at the pout that had formed on Emmett's face. He looked so young at that moment, it made her wonder what he might have been like when he was younger, in the days when he lived in Appalachia. He had memories of being human, but the memories were so clouded, and hard to see that Sophia gave up trying to see anything of his childhood. She also couldn't resist the urge, and she walked over and sat in Emmett's lap, his pout quickly disappeared and transformed into a heart-stopping smile.

He kissed the tip of her nose, and then laughed when a collective groan came from a soprano voice, and bass voice next to them. His forehead was against hers and he turned his face only slightly towards the other two. "If you don't like it, you're welcome to leave us in peace."

Alice crossed her arms over her chest and looked serious. "It would take more than that to get me to leave."

Emmett turned toward Sophia suddenly, taking her face in his hands and then he kissed her, but the way that they had been only a moment before Alice and Jasper had knocked on her door. She forgot anyone was in the room, only able to focus on him, on them. There was the sound of throat clearing, but Emmett didn't stop, holding her firmly in place, and who was she to fight him on this matter?

"Alice, I think that maybe we should let them have some time together..." Jasper whispered.

They had both risen from the couch and were on their way out when there was another knock on the door, and Emmett pulled back groaning. "You have GOT to be kidding me."

Sophia sighed, and hopped up from Emmett's lap, he grabbed hold of her hand and wouldn't allow her to walk away. She looked down at him with a slight smirk on her face, she could feel her cheeks flushed with the excitement and embarrassment from displaying what they did in front of Alice. When she heard Alice's thoughts she couldn't help but laugh Alice didn't think it was disgusting she was happy for the both of them, but Jasper on the other hand had felt quite uncomfortable.

When Alice opened the door so she could slip out and let the other person in Sophia saw Carlisle standing in the doorway. "It's time. Let's go." He said.

Emmett was up from the couch and following Carlisle down the stairs, towing Sophia behind him. They were running, Sophia knew this. Nobody paused to see what car they would take, everyone just immediately walked out the door. Esme and Carlisle took off first, followed by Alice and Jasper, with Emmett and Sophia running behind them. Sophia didn't have to try hard to keep up with Carlisle, she was naturally very fast. She paced herself with Emmett's run. This wasn't a race so she wouldn't show off, and plus they were following Carlisle to a specific area.

Once they reached their destination Sophia, Alice, and Esme sat on a large rock in the middle of the clearing, while the men talked to each other. Sophia sighed thinking about how she felt this was utterly unimportant for her now that she knew the family was not going to let her fight.

"What is it, Sophia?" Esme asked gently.

"Nothing, just wishing that I didn't feel so useless. I've never felt so completely useless as I do right now." She answered.

Emmett turned to look at her, he had heard her response. _You aren't useless, and you're not fighting. Everything will be okay. I promise._ He told her.

She shrugged back at him, not answering to what he told her. He scowled for a moment before turning back to his brother and father. "Why would you ever feel useless? Edward is trusting you with a very important task." Esme stated.

"Yes, however... I don't know..." Sophia stopped trying to explain how she wanted to help fight knowing it would fall on deaf ears.

She sat silently and soon saw Edward carrying Bella on his back, he set her down gently and they walked towards them. Bella sat between Esme and Sophia, and watched as all the men were huddled together talking over strategies. Esme patted Bella on the back before she and Alice rose to join the group. Bella sat silently for a moment before she looked over at Sophia.

"Edward told me that you were going to be responsible for watching me and making sure I didn't do something irrational." Bella said. Sophia only nodded once, stiffly, hating to be reminded of what she would be missing. "I'm guessing they didn't talk this over with you before they decided that either..."

She didn't take her eyes off of her family as she answered Bella's rhetorical statement. "No, Emmett told me after the fact."

"Are you mad?" She asked.

Sophia turned to look at Bella. "I'm not so much mad as I am disappointed that not even Emmett believes in my ability to fight. They want to protect me, but I don't need protection."

Emmett seemed to be ignoring her at the moment, completely focused on whatever Jasper was saying so nobody was paying Bella and Sophia any mind. "I wish they wouldn't fight... if someone gets hurt..."

"Bella, you're being ridiculous. Really. They are completely capable of doing this fight even without me. The wolves will be a good ally to have during this battle. If they don't fight then you will die, and Edward knows this as much as he hates it. He's not afraid of this battle, and neither are the rest, so relax."

"I wish I was one of them."

"I wouldn't wish for such a thing so quickly. There are plenty of things that you have yet to experience. Edward's intentions are in the right place. He's trying to do right by you, and you're making it very difficult for him. I wish you would take his opinions into higher consideration. He loves you so much." Sophia said.

Bella nodded, and she looked thoughtful for a moment. "Sophia..."

"Yes?"

"Can you sleep? Like, are you human in the aspect that you sleep like I do, or are you more vampire in the sense that you don't sleep at all?" She asked.

Sophia sighed. "I can sleep... but it's a bit different than humans. It's something that my family doesn't even know. I sleep usually once or twice a week. I suppose I could sleep whenever I want to, but usually I'm extremely tired it's only once or twice a week and I will sleep then. Also, if I've lost a lot of blood and my body is trying to replenish and keep up, which it can... I get very weak but you cannot drain me dry, it's impossible. However, if enough blood has been taken that my body has to work very hard to replenish, I'm very tired, and that is another time when I can sleep. If I sleep I replenish the blood in my system a lot faster."

Bella looked thoughtful again for another moment. "Do you ever wish that you were just only human, or only a vampire?"

Sophia laughed. "Oh yes, right now, for instance. I wish that I was completely vampire because then I would be allowed to help fight."

"Emmett wouldn't leave you alone, I bet he would try to protect you all the time."

"Oh, I don't doubt it, but... he would allow me to go out there with them. I would be able to fight alongside my family... my love... but, right now due to my abnormality, I cannot. There is nothing I can do about it. I can't be only one or the other, and I suppose I can't mope about it either." Sophia replied.

"Do you know where they will make us wait while they fight?" Bella asked.

Sophia shook her head. "They're undecided. I've seen where Edward wants us to be, where Jasper wants us to be, where Emmett wants us to be. Everyone has different opinions, and they keep changing so..."

"I wish they would just... make up their mind."

The wolves came into the clearing and Edward translated for them. They opted to just watch tactics. Edward sat next to Bella, and all the rest of the family came and sat around where Sophia was sitting. Emmett was Jasper's first example. He was strong, indeed, but Jasper knew his fighting strategy best. Once Jasper beat Emmett, he grumbled his way over to the family. He didn't sit next to Sophia, but in a space that he could see all of the demonstrations. Emmett appeared as though he were studying the entire fight, learning how to fight against different vampires.

Soon the demonstrations were over and the wolves began to leave, only Jacob stayed to talk to Bella. Jasper had mentioned a tactic that Edward was not pleased with, and Sophia understood Jasper's reasoning for mentioning it and Edward's reason for not liking it. She suddenly got an idea, quick to hide it from Emmett's ready mind, so connected to hers. She walked over to Jasper pushing her words through his mind.

_I need to speak with you, away from everyone else. _Jasper's head swung around to look in her direction, and he nodded. Walking off into the forest quickly. Sophia made sure Emmett was involved with everyone else, and not paying attention and she followed after him. She found him, completely out of earshot of the family and stopped in front of him. He stood with a questioning look on his face, wondering what was wrong.

"I saw your plan that you wanted Bella to do..." Sophia began.

"Ah, yes, but Edward already told me it was out of the question, there's no need to be angry with me anymore." Jasper replied.

"No... no... wait, listen to me before you walk away. I'm not angry, and I'm not going to reprimand you for whatever plans you have come up with. However, I think that maybe I should do it... I can do... what you're asking. I can do all of this, without a fear of me dying as I'm just as skilled as the rest of you so whatever gets past you, I can handle. They won't know what to do when I fight back just as hard as they do." Sophia explained.

Jasper's face was serious for a moment. Sophia could hear his thoughts, he was about to tell her how it was too dangerous for her to be in the clearing and fighting, but then she heard his change of mind. His face lit up. "It would be perfect!"

"You really think so?" Sophia asked.

"Yes! You smell just enough like a human that it would distract them, and you're powerful enough and fast enough to avoid their attacks. We should bring it up with the family." Jasper said.

"No, I don't want to tell the family. I want it to be a secret. We'll come up with the plan ourselves, but I need you to make sure that you don't give it away to Edward." Sophia said.

"What about you with Emmett? Can't he hear your thoughts?"

"I have learned that I can keep things hidden in my mind. I need to make sure that I don't think about it."

"If you want to do this, then I'll risk Emmett being angry at me for the next... I don't know how many years. I think it's the best shot that we have at killing these newborns. Of course, we have the wolves as an element of surprise, but this will only make it that much easier."

"Thank you Jasper." She said, hugging him quickly. She could feel him straining his head slightly away from her, and she pulled away. "I'm sorry... we will have to work on that, you and I."

He nodded with a smile on his face, and she waited until his thoughts were completely clear before she walked ahead of him back to where the family was. She could see Emmett looking around the clearing, confusion on his face. She was thankful for her inability to hold still towards the end her scent was all around the clearing. The moment she was in view however he turned to her immediately, he was next to her in another split second.

"What happened? Where did you go?" He asked, his eyes narrow with suspicion.

"Angela was just calling to tell me they had finally dropped everyone off, and that after they left the party they were all too keyed up to fall asleep, so they watched a movie at Mike's place before they all went home." She answered.

He looked a bit surprised by the response that he got. "Oh, did she enjoy the party?"

Sophia laughed. "They all did, she said they'll probably be talking about it for the next few weeks before they move onto another topic of conversation."

"I'm glad that everyone had fun."

Sophia nodded. She smiled up at him, his face was so trusting, and she hated lying to him but she knew this was the only way. She looked over to see Jasper just stepping into the clearing from a completely different angle than she had come from. Alice was chatting happily with him as if nothing were wrong, and she turned her attention back to Emmett just as quickly as she had lost it. She could do this, keep a secret from Emmett...

She knew today would be a day she would need to sleep. She was utterly exhausted between all the stress of the day, and the excitement. Along with the fact that she had been awake for more days than she was used to. Emmett didn't know she could sleep, it was easier for nobody to know anything else about how weird she was. She didn't want the family to have another excuse for thinking her weak. It had been a week since she had shut her eyes to sleep, and the last time she had it was only for a couple of hours so the family would not be worried, or suspicious.

"I think I'm going to head back to the house. I'll see you when you get there." Sophia said.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you? I can..."

She put her fingers over his lips. "I'll be fine. I'm only going from here to the house. I don't think I need a guide. You stay here with the rest of them in case they have something important to talk about."

He nodded, kissing her quickly, but he watched her as she walked away. His eyes never left her back as she retreated first slowly and then breaking into a full run. She reached the house and immediately went up to her room. She hadn't felt this exhausted since the last time she had run across a few vampires who all decided to drink her blood until they could drink no more and they tried to hold her captive. She fell onto the couch, and pulled the heavy quilt that was folded over the back of the couch down on top of her. Her eyes forced themselves closed. She was used to this feeling, it was something she hardly had control over, a lot like being human if a human were to be sleep deprived for a couple of days how their eyes would start closing whether they wanted it to happen or not.

She soon found herself enveloped in vivid dreams. She saw herself running through the forest and then she was frozen in place. She had come face to face with a familiar female vampire, eyes blood red. She was staring back at her fear making her heart pound, but part of it was the adrenaline rush. She heard someone calling her name... Edward maybe? She turned to look in the direction her name had come from and at that moment her body went flying through the air. A few things happened simultaneously she heard her name cried out in horror. There was a hissing sound, and the sound of a broken voice, scared and extremely upset.

"Sophia... Sophia..." She heard Emmett's voice repeated. She wanted to open her eyes and tell him everything would be okay. He sounded so worried. "Sophie... Sophie please..."

Sophia opened her eyes suddenly and saw Emmett hovering over her, a look of relief spread over his face as he exhaled a rush of cold air touching her face. He squatted down next to her, brushing her hair away from her face. A relieved smile spread over his face, as he continued to run his fingers over her hair, and then held a hand to her face.

"Are you okay?" Emmett asked gently. His face looked relieved, but his voice was full of worry.

Sophia's eyes were fighting against her, she needed sleep and she knew she had only slept maybe a few minutes before Emmett woke her. "Mmhmm..." Her voice was groggy.

Emmett's worried look returned. "No, Sophie, open your eyes..."

She pushed his hands away. "Nooo..." She mumbled.

"Wait... Sophie... are you trying to sleep?" He asked, suddenly understanding the attitude that came along with her voice.

"Mmhmm..." Her voice almost inaudible as she drifted off.

His fingertips brushed against her cheekbone. "Sophie.."

"Hmm?" Her eyes remained closed, even though she leaned into his hand unconsciously.

"Do you mind if I lay here with you?" He asked. She heard his voice, and although she was almost completely consumed by her exhaustion she heard how nervous he was asking her.

"Okay." She mumbled, and somehow she managed to scoot herself against the back of the couch, and lift the blanket so that Emmett could slide in.

He had kicked off his shoes, but kept the rest of his clothes on, afraid that she would get cold laying next to him. He wrapped his arm around her waist and put his forehead against hers. Her breathing had slowed into deep breaths. He could smell her scent from it, he loved how she smelled. It was odd, the human part of her was intoxicating in a way he didn't think was possible to handle without just giving in and drinking from her. The vampire scent from her was no different for him. It was a scent that was equivalent to how a normal man would love a certain perfume on the woman he loves. She smelled perfect to him, odd as it was for other people to understand, it made all the sense in the world to him.

Sophia whimpered quietly for just a moment, and her body jerked and Emmett looked down at her waiting to see if this continued, but nothing did. He tried to listen for her thoughts in her dreams, but it was like her mind put a protective block over those thoughts while she slept in her vulnerable state. She was silent for a while and Emmett kissed her forehead before resting his chin on top of her head. She whimpered again, this type crying "Emmett... Emmett... help..." He rolled to his back pulling her up against his side, her head on his chest. He wrapped both arms protectively around her and kissed the top of her head.

Whatever she was dreaming made her restless for the rest of the time she slept. The sun began to shine in through the wall behind the couch, and Emmett cursed quietly. He slid out carefully from under Sophia and pulled the heavy curtains that she used to cover the wall instead of the panel that was used downstairs in the living room. She liked the decorations the curtains held. He had to admit that it was something that was very her. He turned to go back over to the couch, only to rush back over when she heard her crying.

"No... no... I just... Emmett!" It was quiet crying, which is what made it easy to see that it was still only a dream, but she kept on tossing and turning.

He slid back onto the couch and pulled her against him tightly. "Shh, Sophie, it's okay... it's okay."

She calmed down almost immediately, her arms tightening around him as if she were afraid to let him go. He wondered what it was that she was dreaming that would upset her that much. He wished he knew what was going on, but as she kept on sleeping she quieted down while he was there. He didn't dare move an inch while he waited for her to wake, afraid he would wake her up, and he could tell she was completely exhausted.

Emmett looked over at the small clock that Sophia had on her desk, it looked like a miniature grandfather clock. The time read eleven-thirty in the morning. She had been asleep for quite some time, and he couldn't complain he was completely at ease laying with her like this. Her long hair sprawled over his shoulder, her face currently buried into his neck, her arms clinging to him, and her leg wrapped around his.

He thought about how different everything was with Sophia compared to Rosalie. Sophia was so easy to love, her face always so willing to trust him. She would lay like this with Emmett, like she never wanted him to leave her. Rosalie, granted she never slept, would never stay just laying there with Emmett. She wasn't one for showing emotion. They had a physical relationship, very unlike his relationship with Sophia, and the moment things finished she was gone. She loved to argue with him, and tell him how to do everything, where as Sophia was quiet, and willing to listen to how he wanted to do things before she would give her ideas or input.

His mind went to the newborn battle. He remembered her face when he told her that he didn't want her to fight, and it wrenched at his heart to remember the look, but in the end she listened to him. The fact that she agreed to trust him on this matter, she had, hadn't she? Rosalie would have argued with him every second. Actually, Rosalie would have told him that she didn't want him to fight in this battle at all. She hated when Emmett was involved in anything remotely dangerous, but Emmett loved the challenge personally.

Sophia stretched against Emmett's side, and he couldn't help but smile at how even though she stretched her legs and straightened her back she was nowhere near as tall as him. Her arms reached over her head as she yawned, rolled over onto her back, and then she went limp inhaling deeply. Emmett couldn't stop the smile from forming on his face, and he propped himself on his elbow, wrapping his other arm around her waist and watching her face. Her eyes slowly fluttered open and when she focused on him she smiled back at him.

"Hi." She said in a quiet, groggy voice. "When did you get here? Oh no... OH NO!"

She sat up quickly and looked around her as if she were lost. He sat up as well. "What's wrong?" He asked.

"Oh no..."

"Sophie?"

"I was asleep... you saw me sleeping..." She said.

Emmett nodded. "Yes, you scared me. I knocked on your door and you didn't answer, so I pushed it open to see if you were in here and you were passed out on the couch. I thought you were dead somehow. Then I heard your heartbeat, but I was afraid something was wrong. Well, then you woke up, and I asked if I could lay here with you... and you said it was okay. I've been here ever since then. Why? What's the matter?"

"You weren't supposed to know..." She groaned, hiding her face in her hands.

"I wasn't supposed to know what?" He asked.

"That I slept."

Emmett laughed lightly, touching a face to her hand. He was amazed at how she woke up looking just as beautiful as when she had been standing there with him in the clearing. "You think that's embarrassing?"

"Well, I didn't want the family to think I was weak..."

"Sophie, you sleeping will hardly make them think you're weak. You are part human, so it makes sense..."

Sophia sat there for a moment, her face still hidden in her hands and Emmett's fingers brushing the hair away from her face. "I... you... you don't think I'm pathetic?" She asked quietly.

"Pathetic? No, I don't think you're pathetic... but you do have one hell of an imagination, those dreams of yours..."

Her face shot up out of her hands, eyes wide, she was staring back at him. "Did you see my dreams?" She asked.

Emmett sighed. "No, although I wish I could. You were... scared, I think."

She looked confused for a moment. "Oh... I-I can't even remember what I was dreaming about..."

"It doesn't matter the thing that does matter is that you're fine and that those were just what they were... dreams."

"You're too understanding..."

"No, I just love you, and I'll take whatever comes along with that even my half human-half vampire, animal blood drinking, mind reading, thought changing, random sleeping, vivid dreaming girlfriend. It's all fine with me."

She sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Are you always like this when you wake up?" Emmett asked, a smile on his face. "I could add... 'confused and moody when woken up' before the girlfriend in that previous list."

She smacked his arm. "Not nice."

"Ow!" He exclaimed with a laugh. "Come here..."

He pulled her into his lap and kissed her. She pulled back laughing. "Okay, okay so let's retry this good morning thing."

Emmett leaned his forehead against Sophia's. "Good morning."

"Good morning."

"Sleep well?"

"Horrible."

"I'm sorry to hear that." He whispered. "Anything I can do to make you feel better?"

"Hmm... I think you could maybe... kiss me again," She replied.

He kissed her again and then when he pulled away she stood up. "I need a shower, my hair needs to be washed, and I'm a little dirty from yesterday when we were in the clearing."

"Okay, I'll be downstairs." He stood up, kissed her cheek, and walked out of the room.

Sophia let out a sigh of relief the moment that he walked out. She was lucky that he hadn't heard her dreams because then he would think she was scared. He would think of her as more fragile than she really was. The red eyes that stared at her in her dream flashed through her mind again. She shook her head and grabbed a towel, and a change in clothes.


	8. Chapter 8

Eight

(A Few Days Later...)

Alice walked into the room. "It's almost time Carlisle, they will be coming tomorrow morning."

Carlisle looked at his family who were all scattered around the living room doing various things. Alice and Edward were attempting another game of chess. Jasper was reading a book. Esme was working on some blueprint sketch ideas. Emmett was sprawled out on one of the couches watching a game on mute, while Sophia sat at the piano playing music for the entire family. They all looked so innocent, so peaceful. He tried to imagine a day in his life where one of them would not be there. There was no life without Esme, he could never imagine that. Alice and Edward, with their unique gifts, it would pain him to miss their presence. Jasper, with his determination and promise of finally being able to live their lifestyle without any difficulty. He would be sorry to not see Jasper reach his potential. Then there was Emmett and Sophia, Emmett with his love of life that had intensified so much with the newest addition to his family.

He watched Sophia and couldn't help but smile. She brought a new life to the family, and there was no doubt in how protective the entire family was over her. To him, she resembled an angel. Her face was so peaceful, especially whenever music was involved. Now she had Emmett, and he could tell that it was right, they were perfect for each other despite how different they were. She balanced him out, she had the qualities he did not possess, and it applied the other way where he had qualities that she did not have. He watched quietly as Emmett tried to sneak a peek at her over the top of the couch, her eyes caught his, and she smiled shyly looking back down at the piano and a light blush forming on her cheeks. Emmett smiled, it was a different smile... he looked... well, the smile reminded him of the first time he saw his own face after Esme.

Edward looked up at Carlisle and smiled. He tilted his head toward Sophia, then pointed his chin in the direction of Emmett and mouthed 'They look happy.'

Carlisle nodded, and smiled back. He knew Edward could read his thoughts there was no need for him to say anything that might attract attention. Jasper looked over at Carlisle, putting his book down. "Carlisle, I think it might be wise if we go hunting quickly before the fight tomorrow."

He looked at his son and nodded. "That would be a good idea..."

Edward looked up. "I'm about to go and see Bella... I'll go hunting later. She said she needed to talk to me."

Jasper nodded. "That's fine... just make sure you get a decent hunt in before we leave tomorrow."

Edward got up from the chess game and walked out the door. Alice sighed and looked up at Jasper. "I just did a quick hunt last night... I knew you would ask... is it all right if I take Emmett? I need to speak to him..."

Jasper nodded, his eyes flashed quickly and unnoticed to Sophia and then to Emmett. "That's fine, Alice."

Emmett and Alice walked out of the house together, followed by Esme, Carlisle stopped at the door, "Coming with us Jasper?"

"No, I think I'll take Sophia. She can hunt, I know she hasn't for a while." Jasper commented, he looked over to her. "If you don't mind going with me... I know it might be a little frightening, going with someone who could be tempted by you."

Sophia shrugged. "I'll take my chances."

Carlisle smiled. "Be careful, we'll see you here before we leave in the morning. Sophia, I believe Edward is bringing Bella here, so..."

She nodded, knowing where he was going with the rest of his statement. She tried to keep any emotion from her face. "Okay."

He was out the door before she could say anything else, and then Sophia looked at Jasper. "Nice how that worked out, shall we talk strategy?" Sophia asked.

"We shall..." Jasper replied, a smile on his face, gesturing for her to exit the house before him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jasper and Sophia walked into the house and could already see the entire family was standing there with serious expressions on their faces. Emmett was waiting by the door watching her every move as she got closer and closer to the house and the moment she walked in, he pulled her into his arms. Jasper wasted no time going to Alice's side and waited for someone to explain what was happening. Sophia noticed Bella was not with Edward and she wondered what was going on at that very moment because she was sure Edward wasn't going to leave Bella alone.

"Edward has something that he wants to tell the rest of us..." Carlisle began.

Alice rolled her eyes, she already knew what Edward was going to say. "Bella and I have been talking today, and she's worried about what might happen to me... if I fight."

"There's nothing to worry about, Edward, it's going to be a simple and quick fight." Alice interjected.

Edward growled. "You don't know that, Alice"

"Edward..." Carlisle's tone of warning was unmistakable.

"It's not hard to figure out, really..." Alice continued, not phased in the slightest by Edward's tone and statement.

"It doesn't matter. Bella doesn't want me to fight, she would rather be with me..." Edward sighed, and then continued. "I'm stepping out of the fight, if everyone thinks it's okay. I don't want to worry her more, and I feel I owe her this after everything I put her through when I left before. She's afraid... and she doubts my return... that's my fault, putting that doubt there."

"You put far too much blame on yourself for everything. You need to forgive yourself. You were only trying to protect her." Jasper stated.

"If you need to sit out of this fight, then that's fine... but that does put us down one..." Carlisle replied. "However, I feel that you must follow your instinct in what you think is the right and best thing to do right now. We will make do with whatever number of people we have tomorrow."

"Sophia, don't worry about watching Bella. Jacob and I have worked out a way to hide Bella close enough to the fight that I can communicate with the wolves, and still hear the fight... just in case." Edward was looking directly at her, an apologetic look written all over his face.

She turned her attention on Carlisle. "I... I can fight-"

Emmett let out a low growl, his body going completely tense against her small frame. She could feel his objection to her request to fight in his body language. "Sophie..."

The rest of the family now joined Edward in their sympathetic looks. "Sophia, we can't risk it...." Carlisle replied.

Jasper looked over at her fear flashing in his eyes. She knew he was afraid their plan would fail, only one slip up and someone would pick up on what they were planning to do. The odds of pulling this off were slim to none, but she knew he would try no matter what. Sophia stepped out of Emmett's arms and walked silently up the stairs. Nobody followed her, she could hear Emmett's apologies in her mind, his begging her to forgive him, and to come back down. She wasn't angry, nor was she upset, only disappointment that they lacked faith in her strength. She knew if she stayed any longer Emmett would eventually pick up on her thoughts, or Jasper might give something away to Edward. It was a slippery game they were playing, and they needed to be careful at every part especially now that they were so close.

Sophia stood at the back wall looking out into the dark wooded area. Wind was whipping through the tops of the trees and she could feel the change in weather coming. She sighed and turned to face her bedroom door, and almost jumped when she saw Emmett standing there staring back at her. It was a good thing she wasn't thinking about the plan, but at the same time she wondered what kind of confused train of thought he heard in her mind while she had been standing there. She thought about the weather change, the way the tops of the trees were yielding, bending unwillingly to the wind. Nothing made any sense at all, and her thoughts had nothing to do with what she was trying to hide from him.

He closed the distance between them in only a few steps, taking her hands into his. "Sophie... I love you... you know this."

"I know." Keeping her voice unemotional.

He smiled only ever so slightly before he continued talking, "I can't afford to lose you, not right now. I'm being completely selfish trying to keep you safe, Part of me knows you would be okay out there fighting with us," Sophia almost made a move to fuss, but instead closed her mouth and instead focused her eyes on the shirt he was wearing. "But it's a risk I'm very unwilling to take at the moment. The rest of the family feels the same, it's not just me, I'm only the one who is..."

"A bit overzealous..." Sophia whispered.

She turned away from him and her focus fell on her bookshelf. "Sophia, I can't let you be out there... I'll drive myself mad trying to protect you and wondering whether you were okay."

Sophia didn't turn to look at him, but nodded. "I could stand next to you..."

"What if we got separated."

"Then we don't let ourselves get separated. Emmett we can be a team together... I'm an intelligent fighter, you've never seen it. I'm sorry, I'm not angry at you, I'm only disappointed. I want you to believe in me so badly."

"I know." His arms wrapped around her from behind and she gave up fighting against him. "Sometimes it hurts to love you this much…"

She turned around in his arms to look at him. "Why do you say that?"

"Because I know I'm disappointing you, and I hate that…"

Sophia patted his cheek with a smirk on her face and stepped out of his arms. He stood there looking after her with a confused expression. She closed her eyes and counted to ten in her head before turning to face him again. His face had gone from confused to shocked. She had to be careful, but she also knew that she needed to get some rest before tomorrow otherwise something could go wrong. She was thankful for the fact Emmett couldn't hear her thoughts while she slept knowing that she would be worried about whether she could follow through with the plan, or not.

Without saying another word she walked into her walk-in closet and closed the door behind herself pulling on one of Emmett's large t-shirts, and a pair of shorts. When she walked out of the closet she heard a low growl, and suddenly her back was against the wall and Emmett's lips were against hers. Although they had been good to take things slow, she couldn't help her hands holding his face to hers. One of Emmett's hands was on the wall next to her head, the other wrapped around her waist crushing her against him.

Emmett finally pulled away and set his forehead on top of her head, his breathing was ragged and she tried not to focus on the fact that his shirt she was wearing was balled in the palm of his hand as if he would like nothing more than to tear it away from her. She kept her eyes closed, but she didn't need to open them to know that his eyes were open and reading her face for it's expression. She sighed quietly, and heard him make a quick deep sound.

He stepped away, and reached for her hand. She opened her eyes in time to see him pulling her to the couch. Emmett sat and pulled her face down towards his gently to kiss her lips softly before he laid back and made room for her to lay next to him in between the back of the couch and himself. He liked to make sure she was safe from falling off. Pulling the blanket over her he placed a kiss on her forehead.

"I love you, Sophie."

"Love you too, Emmett."

Sophia fell asleep quickly while Emmett's hand rubbed up and down her back. She always seemed so fragile to him when she was sleeping. When he was sure that she was completely asleep he kissed her forehead and carefully got up from the couch, making sure she was wrapped in the blanket, and a pillow was under her head instead of his arm. He waited to make sure she didn't wake up before he made his way down the stairs. Jasper was sitting on the couch reading a book, and Esme was humming to herself while she sketched on a piece of paper only pausing when she looked up to smile at him as he came down the stairs toward her.

"You look concerned son of mine." Esme commented as she focused back on her sketch, picking up right where she had left off.

Emmett sat down next to her and sighed. "I'm worried about Sophia… she's just acting a little off. I can't quite figure out what's going on. Her… her thoughts aren't leading me to believe anything is wrong in particular, and I would like to think that if there was something going on she would tell me…"

"Maybe she just wants you to trust her enough to fight with you." Jasper commented while reading his book, his eyes never left the pages they were on.

Emmett watched his brother curiously for a moment before saying anything. "She knows how I feel concerning that topic of conversation. I can't let her fight. I don't want to lose her Jasper, surely you can understand that."

Jasper looked up, meeting his brother's stare straight on. "Of course I understand. I don't want Alice out there fighting any more than you want Soph out there, but I have to. Alice is capable of fighting, and sure I will probably stay close to her and make sure that she isn't hurt, but she's strong… you…"

"I've had to protect Sophie from Victoria once before we even ever got along. The fact of the matter is that I'm afraid she will freeze again. On top of that, I'm afraid that Victoria will target her… the newborns will definitely lose control around her…"

Nothing was said for a brief moment again, and then Jasper broke the silence. "I'm surprised that you aren't up there spending time with her as you are unsure what will happen tomorrow, and although I'm confident we will be fine… you never know when your last day will be…"

Esme looked up at Jasper frowning. "Jasper… I do not want you to even begin thinking thoughts like that. Emmett already has enough on his plate to worry about." She said softly, reaching over and rubbing Emmett's shoulder.

"I'm just stating the obvious. I know that Sophia is worried about him. She's just as afraid of losing you as you are of losing her Emmett. Did you ever stop to think why Edward agreed to drop the fight? He would do anything for Bella if she asked him to. If Sophia asked you to stay with her, and not fight… would you even consider doing that?"

Emmett scowled. "You know I couldn't leave the family alone out there to fight…"

Esme sighed, and Jasper shook his head. "You're a thrill-seeker Emmett. You love the idea of a fight… living a life full of violence like that isn't as glorious as it may appear, believe me, I would know. I will have it be known that if Alice had come up to me and asked me never to fight again while I was with Maria I would have done it. I would have bent over backwards for her, and I will would. She is the most important thing in my entire life, and I urge you to think hard about what is the most important thing in your life. If the most important thing is Sophia…"

"She's my life, Jasper… she's more to me than Rosalie ever was, or ever could be. I never thought that was possible, but all this time…"

Jasper held a hand up to his brother. "You need not explain your feelings for Sophia. I'm highly aware of them already. I'm also aware of the fact that Sophia is an amazing person. She's genuine, Emmett… everything about how she feels about you is… I can't explain it… she worries about you, and she's scared that something will go wrong in this battle if she is not there to help."

Emmett stood up from the couch. He knew she worried, those were the thoughts he could hear, the thoughts that echoed and haunted him. He tried not to think about what would happen if he didn't return from the fight, but focused more on making sure he was prepared to go. Without saying another word he climbed the stairs again, quietly entering Sophia's room again. She had turned the opposite direction, her back to him now, and she was huddled up against the back of the couch, her long hair spilling around her and covering her face. He made his way to her, and fit himself next to her, replacing the pillow with his arm, her head resting on his bicep. It could hardly be more comfortable, but she always seemed fine with it. He reached up with his other hand and gently brushed the hair away from her face.

Her scent hit him hard, God he loved how her hair smelled. He buried his face in her hair for a moment, inhaling deep and then leaned forward kissing her cheek. She stirred a bit, and turned to face him. She leaned her forehead against his chest and inhaled sharply before relaxing again. Emmett pulled her tight against him and closed his eyes trying to remember this moment as clearly as if it were happening all over again. There were things that, should it be the last time he saw her, he wanted to be able to remember with clarity one last time. He wanted to remember the way she buried herself against him unconsciously when she was sleeping. He wanted to remember what she smelled like, even if it was almost too much to handle on some days. Most of all he never wanted to forget how she felt in his arms, how she fit against him, and her lips against his.

Sophia stirred again, and he felt her hand touch his face. His eyes shot open and he found himself staring back at her in the moonlit room. "You look like you're in pain…" She whispered.

"I was just… thinking."

"I know… I…"

He kissed her, cutting off her words. He was not going to hold back, he pulled her tighter against him and soon found himself hovering over top of her. His hand reached behind her knee, pulling her leg up, her other leg following suit until they were wrapped around him. Emmett growled low and deep in the back of his throat as he stopped kissing her on the lips and instead began on her neck at the same time his hand slid under her shirt and over her bare stomach. Sophia gasped, her eyes closed and head tilted to allow him access to her throat. She looked beautiful to him, but this wasn't how he wanted it to happen. He didn't want their first time to be out of complete desperation, and for fear of losing her, and her fear of losing him.

She knew as soon as he thought it that they were going no further, but neither made a move to change the position they were in. "Emmett…"

"I promise that someday… I will show you how much I love you, but this isn't the way… I will be back for you." He stated.

She only nodded. She refused to be weak in front of him. She would only cry if something bad actually happened to him, but until then she would remain strong for him, she would be supportive. He would be back. Her legs unwrapped from around him, and they readjusted back to the position they were in before they had moved. They were silent for what seemed like ages before one of them broke the silence.

"Thank you…" Sophia said.

Emmett's eyes met hers and he couldn't help the smile from forming on his face. "What in the world could you possibly be thanking me for?"

"For the fact that you care enough to make sure that when we… well, that it's important and… ugh, I can't believe I'm talking about this." She covered her face with her hand and burrowed into his chest.

He laughed quietly. "Don't worry, I know I'm just one big cheesy boyfriend. You're so lucky, right? I bet you wish you would've fallen in love with some guy that wasn't a big jerk like I am…"

Sophia touched his face and looked at him seriously. "I would not change you one bit… I love you how you are, and I'm perfectly happy with you right now. I do not want anyone else."

Emmett only nodded, then kissed her, before he said, "Go back to sleep Sophie. We will be leaving soon…"

She knew very well that the "we" that he was referring to did not include her. Closing her eyes she snuggled up against him, sighing contentedly when he wrapped his arms around her and ran his fingertips up and down her back. His steady breathing was a soothing metronome that eased her back into her deep sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sophia woke against her will to the sound of a male voice that didn't belong to Emmett speaking, and the feeling of Emmett kissing the top of her head, then her forehead, then the tip of her nose. She felt his fingertips glide along her jaw before he kissed her lips lightly, his thumb rubbing across her cheekbone. Her eyes opened slowly to see his golden eyes staring back into hers. A soft smile played at his mouth as she woke up.

"It's time, Sophie. I want you to be very careful, and if anything goes wrong here call Edward. He will be waiting to hear a word from you just in case." His thumb still rubbed back and forth over her cheekbone while she lay there silently.

Finally, she sat up he was kneeling on the floor next to the sofa, She sat, one leg on either side of him, and grabbed his face in her hands and held him still as she leaned in and kissed him passionately. When she pulled back she said, "Be careful, and I will see you soon."

Emmett nodded, and rose up looking at her for a moment before turning and walking out of the room. She exhaled, a gush of air rushing out of her as she slumped back against the sofa. She would get ready to fight today, and then somehow make it out there without any of them noticing that she was there aside from Jasper. She threw on a pair of jeans and a tanktop, under a thin long-sleeved blue shirt. She heard the front door to the house open and everyone walking out, and then the sound of someone knocking on her door. She opened her door to see Jasper standing there.

"They won't think anything weird about you coming up here and checking on me?" She asked.

He shook his head. "We have to be fast, they're coming. The family is headed out, I know where to meet them, but I said I wanted to check on you one last time and make sure you were okay, as your feelings were a wreck to me last night. Which, they were, but not for the same reasons that they think."

Sophia sighed. "I hate lying to Emmett. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. Trying to keep my thoughts anywhere but on what we planned…"

She looked over at Jasper who immediately said, "This plan will work… just relax. Don't let yourself think about dying, it's not an option. I'll be close by to make sure that you're okay, I can take a few newborns on my own…"

"Jasper…"

He held a hand up to her making her end her sentence. "It will be okay. Alice can handle herself, and I highly doubt that Carlisle, or Emmett will let anything happen to her. Mainly, I know Emmett will keep an eye on her if he doesn't see me around. Carlisle may be preoccupied with Esme, but don't worry. I'll keep an eye on you, but we have to focus on getting you there without any of the family noticing. The battle should be starting before we get there… I'm hoping that will keep their attention off of us. Are you ready?"

Sophia nodded and followed him out of the room. They were quick running out of the house, he led her in a round-about path to the place where the battle would take place. She followed him silently, neither making a sound as they ran as fast as they could. Finally Jasper held his hand up and slowed his pace to a slow, careful walk as though he were trying to sneak up on someone. He pointed straight ahead and Sophia could see the newborns making their way into the clearing, and she watched silently as Emmett, whose back was to her, stood tall his hands in fists and the muscles in his forearm pronounced from how tight he held his hands. He was in a stance ready to take whatever came his way.

The newborns suddenly took off in a run towards Esme, Carlisle, Alice, and Emmett. The sounds of growls, and hisses filled the area and Sophia backed away so she would not get caught. She could see the wolves sneak up from behind some of the newborns distracting them into another direction. There were so many of them running around, and when Sophia turned her attention back she saw Emmett slammed against a tree. She covered her mouth with a hand so no noise would betray her being there. Some newborns froze as they ran close to where Jasper and Sophia stood, they turned and she noticed they were looking directly at her.

Jasper's hand grabbed her arm. "Just keep trying to avoid their attacks I'll get them from you. Do you think you can do that? Just keep dodging."

She nodded, and he disappeared from next to her at the same time the newborns who had caught her scent ran full speed toward her. She jumped out of the way of the first one, and then the next one. She spun around quickly just in time to jump out of the way of another attempted attack. She saw Jasper had grabbed one and he was tearing it to pieces. She hopped out of the way of another attack and looked over her shoulder quickly to see Emmett fighting with two newborns, and Alice flitting around gracefully avoiding any harm.

"SOPH!" Jasper yelled, and she felt the full impact, her body crashing to the ground as the hissing sounds of a newborn crushing her to him sounded in her ear.

Jasper tackled the newborn off and Sophia scrambled up, trying to regain her breath. The newborn hadn't really hurt her, probably because he was going to feed from her, but fortunately she would never know why. He was dead soon thereafter. Unfortunately, Sophia had also managed to get the attention of another few newborns. Jasper quickly took one down, and Sophia ran away from the fight with the other two running after her. She jumped up, grabbing the branch of a tree, the two who had been chasing her ran past her and turned back around right as she hit the ground, landing gracefully. She ducked as one came flying at her, and rolled off to the side as the other came running towards her.

The high pitched scream of a female newborn being torn to shreds sounded through the wooded area. Sophia continued to play a dodging game as the other vampire tried to capture her, but now being out of the view of Emmett and the rest of the family she had no distractions. Her full focus was on making sure that she didn't get touched by this vampire. Jasper seemed to be busy with some other newborns that had caught her scent and she realized she would have to battle this one on her own. She had watched Jasper teach the family how to fight, she could do this.

The newborn came for her again, trying to grasp at her and she jumped over him, and immediately took him down to the ground. Jasper ran over and helped her tear it to pieces. The sight of this was sickening, but as she looked at it, it would either be her or them.

"Your plan worked, they're coming your way, its making the fight down there easier. I'm going to go and intercept a few more before they reach you. Stay right here, and if they come after you, just run towards me. I won't be far, just… right there!" He ran towards the newborns that were headed towards them.

Sophia backed away from them running a little farther. She kept her eyes on the distant battle that Jasper was handling without a problem. She heard the distant yell of Bella, "Edward watch out!"

She was close to where they were hiding, and something wasn't right there. "Well, well, look what I've found." Victoria's voice sounded behind her.

Spinning around she saw Victoria's red eyes wild and wide as she looked her over. "It was you… this whole time."

"Yes well, I couldn't let that little human live… she needs to die, she killed my love…"

"Because you know what love is." Sophia blurted out.

Victoria's eyes narrowed. "Where is your big protector? I don't see him anywhere around you this time. Do you have a cell-phone to call him and ask for help this time?"

The truth was Sophia had left her cell back in her room, and it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Edward was obviously busy fighting, just as Emmett was, and Jasper was trying to keep newborns for reaching her. "I don't need his help."

"Are you sure about that?" She asked, a breeze blew around them, and she inhaled deeply. "You smell just as good as you did the day we ran into each other in the forest…"

"Doesn't matter you can't have me."

"I get what I want."

"Obviously not always if you haven't killed Bella yet… that's a shame."

Victoria laughed, a cold and merciless laugh. "Oh, that's not a problem. She will be dead by the end of this battle, and I can teach that ridiculous vampire of hers a lesson in losing the one you love. Of course, maybe I can teach two vampires that lesson today. Hmm, it would be fun to have the big one come after me… I bet he's quite a bit to handle, isn't he? Surely he is too much of a man for a little girl like you to handle."

Sophia clenched her fist, her teeth grinding as she held back the feeling of wanting to fight with her. It didn't matter as Victoria launched at her and she jumped out of the way. "I will get you, don't you worry about that." Victoria commented.

She circled Sophia's position before jumping at her again, and failing to grab her. They stood staring at each other for a moment before Victoria made another attempt and Sophia managed to jump at her and throw her to the ground. Victoria threw Sophia off, and she went flying into where a large tree and the ground met. Sophia watched as Victoria jumped at her again, and she scrambled out of the way. Pushing herself back into a standing position she saw her opponent shake her head quickly and she slowly turned so they were facing each other again.

"Funny, you're not running this time… you must have a death wish." Victoria said.

Sophia smirked and said, "Funny, I could say the exact same thing about you."

Victoria growled loudly and pushed Sophia back into a tree one hand on her jaw, and the other pulling at a handful of her hair. Victoria's body was pressed against Sophia not allowing her to move, but it didn't matter, Victoria snapped at Sophia at the same time that she pulled Victoria's head back, somehow allowing for some room in between their bodies and she kicked Victoria off, the impact sending her back to the ground again. Sophia hadn't realized how much taller Victoria was than her. Then again, she was small compared to everyone. Victoria was on her feet in a matter of seconds, and Sophia saw her waste no time in running towards her. She was about to focus on her thoughts when she heard a familiar voice.

"SOPHIE NO!"

She turned her attention to see Emmett running towards them and Sophia's body curved as the full impact of Victoria's blow hit her, her body hitting a thin tree, breaking it in half and she rolled on the ground from the momentum and stopped herself and she stayed for a minute on her hands and knees. She would have marks from this, she was sure. She looked over towards Emmett and Victoria noticing that another newborn was headed toward her, and Jasper was running after it as fast as he could. She jumped out of the way, grabbing onto a tree for support as Jasper launched himself at the newborn.

She turned her attention back to Emmett. He was on the ground and Victoria was headed at him when Edward appeared quickly. Emmett jumped up and ran over to Sophia's side. He grabbed onto her face tightly, trying to see if there was anything wrong with it. He stepped back looking down her entire body, piece by piece and then turned back to help Edward finish Victoria off. The battle was over then, and everyone hurried to set all the pieces of their enemies on fire.

"Edward, something happened…" Alice said as she ran over to where he stood setting Victoria to flames.

"No!" He yelled, and ran back in the direction he had come for. Sophia heard his thoughts, and ran after him.

Jacob's wolf form lay on the ground near Bella while Carlisle worked quickly over him. Edward ran over to Bella in time to catch her as she passed out from the sight. Sophia noticed another huge fire not far from where Jacob's body lay. "Seth saved Jake… I guess one newborn managed to escape, and was going for Bella and Jacob came out of nowhere and well, the newborn got the better of him."

"Carlisle… Bella…" He checked Bella to make sure she was all right.

"I think she's just in shock. Give her body time to comprehend what just happened. She'll be fine in a moment. I need to focus on Jacob." Carlisle answered.

"Carlisle… the Volturi sent some of their guard here. They will be here soon." Alice said from behind Sophia.

_Shit._ Emmett's voice rang in her mind. "We need to get Jacob, the rest of the wolves, and Sophia out of here now!" Carlisle instructed. "Soph, can you find Sam… you know which one he is, get him out here. Seth, Embry, and Quil here can carry Jacob back."

The three had already changed back into human form, all only wearing shorts or pants. _Be safe, Sophie._ Sophia locked eyes with Emmett for only a second before taking off in search of Sam. She found him and the rest of the wolves walking toward her in human form.

"The Volturi are coming… and believe me you don't want to come across them." Sophia blurted out.

"Jake, what happened to him?" Sam asked.

"He's hurt, but Embry, Quil, and Seth are carrying him back to his house. Carlisle wanted me to warn you before they got here. Please, go fast… he will be there soon to care for Jacob… if that's okay with you…"

Sam nodded grimly before running with the rest of them back towards La Push. Now she had to get home before she was caught. She ran as fast as she could, but in a distance she saw the forms of hooded figures moving far too quickly to be human. She backed away quickly before they noticed and ran in the opposite direction. She made it home, fortunately, without being caught, and she waited in the living room looking out of the windows for sign of the rest of the family. It was at least two hours before Alice and Jasper came into view.

Alice ran into the house and hugged Sophia tightly, and Jasper did the same. "I can't believe you did that…" She began to say.

"I needed to help."

"Yes, well you did. We weren't doing fantastic at first, but I think we would've been able to handle it fine, there were a lot of them, but you made it easy for us. We were all wondering why it was over so fast." Alice commented.

"I'm so sorry that I didn't see you fighting with Victoria… you'd gone out of my sight." Jasper apologized.

"No, it wasn't your fault. You were fantastic, you helped me so much."

The door opened again behind Sophia, and she didn't have to look to know it was Emmett by the way that Alice and Jasper stepped back from Sophia and quietly made their way up the stairs to their room. Emmett spun her around forcefully, checking her again for any sign of injury.

"I'm fine." She whispered.

He turned from her a hand covering his face, eyes closed as if he were in pain. "My GOD, I could kill you for what you put me through!"

"Emmett…"

"NO!" He turned to face her again, anger written clearly on his face. "No! You almost took the most important thing in my entire life away from me. How DARE you do that to me?! I… I cannot tell you what it felt like to see Jasper feet away from me fighting, and suddenly come across your scent… I was afraid I would find you in pieces burning… or have some ridiculous pile of newborns drinking from you…"

She watched as his eyebrows drew together, he was reliving the moment in his mind, she could see it. She felt horrible for what she put him through, but everyone was safe, and surely she had to have helped a little bit in that factor.

"I just…"

When his eyes met hers they clearly told her that he didn't want to hear any excuses that were going to come from her. "I told you to do one simple thing, Sophia, one small request for your own good…"

"I'm not going to let you guilt me into feeling bad about this. You needed me out there, obviously! I saw you fighting… without my distracting some of them they could have torn all of you apart, and then where would I be? I WOULD BE ALONE!"

"That may be true, it may not, but we never will know because you ran out there trying to play hero! YOU WOULD HAVE DIED IF I HADN'T COME! IF EDWARD HADN'T COME!"

Sophia bit her tongue. She wasn't going to argue with him. She knew if she stayed here having this conversation that she would end up saying something that she didn't mean, and she would regret. She turned quickly and ran up the stairs to her room, she slammed the door shut and locked it before Emmett could decide he wanted to come in as well. With her back on the door, she slid down until she was sitting on the floor of her room. Maybe she shouldn't have gone after all.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own The Cullens… I do own Sophia thanks. I wish I were so awesome as to have created the Cullens… Thank you S. Meyer for them.

Nine

(One Week Later…)

Edward, Alice, Jasper, and Esme were sitting in the living room. Esme was reading one of the classic books off one of the bookshelves in their library. Jasper and Alice were sitting together, the television was on but neither of them were watching it as they whispered quietly amongst themselves. Edward was sitting at the piano working on a new piece of music quietly while Bella was working at the Newton's store. Carlisle walked into the room wearing his lab coat over a dark blue turtleneck sweater, and khaki pants. Esme smiled up at him as he bent down to place a kiss on her mouth.

"I have to go into work, it seems one of the doctors have called out sick." He said when he pulled back.

"Will you be back soon?" Esme asked, her face hopeful.

"I'm not working a full shift, just a few hours. I'm going to check on his patients, and when I'm all done I'll be back home. I'm supposed to have this time off, remember?" Carlisle kissed her forehead and turned around, everyone looked up to see Emmett descending the stairs silently.

The look on Emmett's face was grim and when he entered the room he made no greeting, and fell back on the couch next to Esme. "Hello son." She said sweetly.

"Hey mom." He replied, the civility in his tone was forced, and everyone exchanged quick looks.

Their attention went back to the stairs as Sophia came down quietly. Her face looking sad, and longingly at Emmett. "Hello dear." Carlisle walked up to her and kissed her cheek. "I will see all of you later."

Sophia nodded, her eyes staying on Emmett until he finally jumped up off the couch angrily and mumbled, "I'm going to go work on my car." He left the room from another door that would lead him outside without him having to pass by her.

Carlisle patted her cheek softly before turning to walk out of the door. Sophia stood in the middle of the room silently for a moment before she blurted out, "I think I'm going hunting."

She turned to walk out of the front door, and Jasper jumped up before she could walk out. "I need to go too, so I'll go with you."

He held the door open for her, looking back at Alice smiling once more, and then following Sophia out of the door. Emmett stood next to his car in the garage, a dirty rag in one hand, a wrench in the other and he was slightly bent over the hood, and he watched as Sophia ran into the trees without looking in his direction. He was about to go back to work when he noticed that Jasper was following her, and he straightened his body quickly, forgetting about the fact that his hood was open over his head and the back of his head cracked against it. He rubbed his head slightly with the hand holding the rag, and then threw down the items stalking back into the house again.

Esme looked over at Edward and Alice. "They're still not talking to each other?" She asked.

Edward growled. "Emmett is being an idiot. Sophia apologized even though I told her not to because she did nothing wrong. She was just as worried about him as he was about her so there was no point for him to go off on her like he did. She's tried to talk to him, but he keeps avoiding her. I should kill him for the way he's treating her. God, does he have any idea what he's putting her through?"

Alice and Esme sat staring at Edward after his little rant for a moment as if they couldn't believe he was actually going off on this tangent, and he sat there looking at the two as if he were expecting them to answer. "Edward, you can't even hear her thoughts…"

"It doesn't matter if I can't read her thoughts, Alice. It's clear as day, written all over her face." Edward replied his hand making a sweeping circular motion across the front of his face.

Alice snickered for a moment, and Esme sighed and whispered, "I hate seeing her so upset, and I hate not seeing them together, it's not right. They belong together…"

Around the corner, in the next room, Emmett stood there silently listening to the conversation that was taking place in the room. He had originally had every intention of reaming everyone out for allowing Jasper to follow Sophia out. They should have asked him if he had wanted to go, as he was the one who normally hunted with her, but then he realized that he couldn't have actually expected them to come to him as he was acting like the biggest ass that was alive.

_This was your fault, now you pay the consequences. _Emmett thought to himself. He turned and walked back to the garage forgetting the fact that he was going to yell at them for allowing Sophia to go off with Jasper of all of them. He was the most dangerous when he was thirsty, he would drink from her until he could drink no more, and Emmett was afraid of that possibility. He could envision Sophia's face, scared as she didn't know whether she would survive Jasper's attack or not. He thought about chasing after them to keep watch, but then thought twice about that idea, and realized it wouldn't be a good one.

_Maybe she wouldn't want to see you._ He thought to himself.

"You're being ridiculous, brother. Of course she wants to see you. Her pitiful face when she looks at you as if she's hoping and praying you forgive her is only one sign… and her crying at night when she's alone in her room and she has one of her horrible dreams, you're not there to comfort her…" Edward said, walking into the garage with a slightly annoyed expression on his face. "Don't even tell me that you didn't know that was happening, or that you didn't hear her. I know for a fact that you have…"

Emmett had indeed heard her whimpering, every nerve, muscle, and bone wanted to go to her and soothe her back into a peaceful sleep, but his stubborn streak had taken over. _Stupid… so stupid…_

Edward crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned his back against his Volvo facing Emmett. "I couldn't agree with you more." A smirk played at his lips as his big brother growled slightly and went back to work under the hood of his car.

"Figures…" Emmett mumbled.

His brother chuckled from where he stood watching. "Now, how about you end this mess that you've gotten yourself into and forgive her. I have a feeling she will be more than willing to take you back with open arms, and I'll even wager she won't even think twice or make it difficult on you… although she should…"

A few choice names, and curses came from under the car where Emmett was sliding under to work. Edward threw his head back in laughter and patted the Jeep before walking away shaking his head and only hoping that his brother would just listen to his advice and end the coldness.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sophia slowed to a walk, and Jasper stopped beside her. He looked around not smelling any live animals roaming close enough to them to have made her slow down. Jasper looked over at Sophia who then leaned against a tree and stopped completely. Jasper walked around to the front of her and sighed.

"You miss him horribly…"

The statement wasn't a question, and Sophia only nodded. "I don't know what else to do, Jasper. I've exhausted all the possibilities to make him listen to me."

Jasper reached a hand toward her tentatively, and then withdrew right before his hand touched her shoulder. He had never tried to comfort someone in a way that wasn't forcing his power over emotions on them. That was only a temporary fix, he wanted for Sophia to understand that it would get better, and his cloaking her emotions for this short excursion would do absolutely no good when she was thrown back into reality and back to face the situation that she was in with her love.

"I feel slightly responsible for the mess happening now. Had I just… followed Emmett's orders, maybe everything would be fine now."

Sophia shook her head. "No, well… maybe everything would be fine now, but maybe one of you would be missing forever, or more of you… or all of you! The fact of the matter is that what we did was the right thing to do, and if Emmett can't see that then there's nothing that I can do for him."

"He loves you…"

"Not enough to forgive me for something that I know he would have done had he been in my shoes. He can't forgive me for wanting to protect my own family."

"He has considered it."

Sophia made eye contact with Jasper, his eyes were black already with thirst. "Do not blame yourself, Jasper. It isn't your problem to shoulder."

"Well, no matter what you tell me I am still going to feel guilty." Jasper admitted, he kicked at a small rock next to his foot.

"I would rather you not, but I also know that there is not going to be anything that I can do to change that. Shall we hunt?" Sophia asked, leaning her head back against the tree.

She could hear Jasper's sigh. "I'm here for you whenever you need someone to talk to. I can listen, and don't worry eventually everything will go back to normal. You'll see, that one of these days Emmett will not be able to put up with ignoring you. Loving you is what Emmett exists for… I think of it like this… sometimes unfortunate things happen to those of us who may not deserve it, for example being turned vampire, but I feel that there is always a reason for that happening. Emmett thought that he was supposed to be with Rosalie all of this time, but he never knew his purpose until he met you."

Sophia smiled a bit at Jasper. "Is that how you think of yourself and Alice?"

Jasper shrugged. "I love Alice more than anything, and I would do anything and everything she ever asked me to if it made her happy. She's my everything, and without her I wouldn't exist anymore. I try to remind myself of that on the times that I do anything to mess up, which my mishaps happen far too often. I feel as though I'm not worthy of something so good…"

She took a step toward him with her arms open as if to hug him, and he jumped back away from her and his eyes looked wild. He held a hand up, his face turned away from her as he strained to control himself. "Don't… come any closer…"

Sophia backed against the tree and thought for a moment how hard everything was for Jasper. "You know what? I think it's time we begin working on you…"

Jasper looked over at her in confusion. The wild look in his eyes was slowly going away. "What do you mean?"

"You… it's so hard for you to be around people. It's hard for you to live in the lifestyle that we do without having to hunt an extra amount of times. I think that it's time that we tried to fix that… I can help you…"

His face looked slightly confused for a moment before the understanding lit up his face. "No, Sophia, you are not going to risk yourself to do this for me. It's of little importance, really. I will eventually get used to all of this and it will become simple for me."

"Jasper…" She reached down and grabbed a jagged, and sharp looking stone, holding it to her wrist.

He tried to reach for her arms to stop her, but she moved away from him quickly. "Soph, please don't do this. Emmett will kill me if I even so much as think of harming you."

"You will want to drink my blood, but it doesn't matter if you do it… my body will replenish enough to keep me alive. You cannot kill me unless you separate me into pieces… or burn me, or both." She replied with nonchalance. Jasper shook his head, and Sophia continued. "We're going to hunt, it will be okay. IF you drink from me I will be just fine. I'm not scared Jasper, and we don't have to tell Emmett…"

Without warning Sophia cut a slash across her wrist and stepped back from Jasper. "So-"

Jasper lost his control in a split second but he flew by her as she jumped out of the way of his attack. "Come on, Jasper, fight it…"

He was growling deep, his eyes wild, and dark with the thirst she already knew was there magnified by the fact that he craved her part human blood. She would hold him off, she was concentrating on his thoughts to make sure she knew what he was going to do next to keep herself safe. Jasper lunged for her again and she quickly hopped to her left.

"Come on Jasper. I know that you can do this, fight it… fight it and we can go hunt… you're strong enough for this."

He hadn't regained his composure, and she was beginning to wonder if maybe he wouldn't be able to control himself. Sophia was healing quickly, the long slash she had done across her wrist was closing up. Sophia took a few steps back, seeing Jasper faint a little to keep her in his sight. He ran at her again and she spun out of the way and around a tree, he seemed to keep up with her movement this time and she finally jumped out of his last attempt to grab her.

Her cut finally closed all the way when a deer ran by them close enough for both to catch it's scent and Jasper took off after it. Sophia sighed and knew she couldn't let this be the last time that she helped him. She would take him out as many times as she needed in order to make it more comfortable for him to handle human blood. She ran a good distance from the ground they had just been at so that they were nowhere near the scent of her blood that may have gotten on the ground in her attempts to avoid his attacks. Her wrist looked as though it never spilled any blood, and when she was a safe distance that even she couldn't smell it anymore, she waited for Jasper.

He came back looking calm, his eyes now a soft honey gold color. "I'm so sorry…" He apologized as his face looked up at her with embarrassment and disappointment.

Sophia shook her head. "No, you have nothing to be sorry about. You didn't drink from me. I'm here, and I'm alive. You chose to go after that deer instead of me… that's some restraint, and you should be proud of that."

"But had it not come I would've attacked you again and again until I had gotten you." Jasper replied quietly.

"No, you would've gotten sick of missing me eventually and gained control of yourself enough to walk away."

She caught a scent of another animal and took off after it. Moments later she raised herself up from the animal and straightened her shirt. Jasper laughed. "You're quite graceful with hunting, and somehow you just fixing your shirt there was one of the single most frightening things I've seen. Little person… lots of skill and power."

Sophia rolled her eyes. "Let's get back home. Also, I hardly think Alice is a wimp, or anything but graceful and powerful."

Jasper laughed and said, "Oh, she can be just as frightening as you… the two of you together though…" He shook his head with another quiet chuckle.

She couldn't help but smile at the way laughing transformed his face into something incredibly beautiful. He always looked so serious, and this act made him seem almost like a completely different person, a person that she was sure that mostly only Alice got to see. It was something rare to see when he was around her as she reminded him of the human smell, and he did try very hard to look as though he was not concentrating on trying not to kill her, but sometimes the look of concentration just came over his face, he couldn't help it. She vowed she would change the difficulty of this lifestyle for him. When she was done with him he would be able to stand in the same room with someone bleeding and possibly have more composure than anyone else in the entire family.

As if he knew what she was thinking he asked, "Soph, do you have any difficulty controlling yourself around humans if they bleed…"

Sophia smiled sympathetically. "Not really… I don't know if it's the human part of me, but I just… don't get me wrong, of course I get that sudden urge to drink from them… however, I have no problems pushing that feeling to the side. The same with hunting animals, I can bypass anything when I'm thirsty… maybe it's just the way that I went about having to live on my own for so long…"

"I admire you, possibly more than anyone else in this family…"

"Aside from Alice." Sophia pointed out.

He smiled slightly. "Of course, aside from Alice, but you're… you're definitely something incredible."

When they had finally reached the edge of their lawn and neither saw Emmett standing in the library window looking out at them, arms crossed over his chest. He disappeared from the window before they noticed him. It was now late in the day as they had taken their time walking back and talking about all sorts of things. Jasper really did like Sophia, she was the type of person that he could completely understand why Alice was friends with. The moment they walked in the door Alice smiled up at them and hugged Sophia quickly before taking Jasper away.

Sophia only shook her head as she watched them walk out of the room together, and then turned her attention to the emptiness that surrounded her. Edward wasn't there, which normally meant he was spending time with Bella. Carlisle and Esme weren't there, so it was possible that he had gotten home and taken Esme somewhere for some time alone. She didn't see Emmett, and the house was completely silent, so she walked up to her room, opening the door and the moment she stepped in the door shut behind her, a pair of arms wrapped around her, and a familiar beautiful scent filled her as she breathed in.

Emmett held her one arm around her waist, pressing her against him, and the other hand buried in her hair holding her head to his chest. His lips touched the top of her head as he inhaled the scent of her hair, a low sigh coming from him. Sophia wrapped her arms around him, and closed her eyes tightly hoping she wasn't imagining this, and she had one vivid imagination because when she would be thinking about this very moment she could almost always feel what it would be like, but… this couldn't be her imagination it felt so much better…

"I'm so sorry." He whispered, kissing her forehead, and then his hands held each side of her face as his lips came down over hers.

"It's okay, I understand, but I'm not going to apologize for doing what I did. It was the right thing for me, and the family." Sophia replied.

Emmett couldn't help but burst out in laughter, and he kissed her again. "I wasn't expecting you to apologize, my love. Actually, I feel that had you apologized I would have been very disappointed in you. I quite enjoy your stubborn streak. Although you sort of apologized before, but I know you didn't mean it. You were just trying to get me to talk to you again… God, I'm so sorry…"

She smiled at his comment and kissed him quickly before stepping out of his hold. He made a sort of whimpering sound at her stepping out of his arms. "I was hoping to hold you the rest of tonight. We are alone in the house…"

Sophia looked back at him. "What do you mean? Alice and Jasper were just here…"

"Alice had plans for them, she was telling me they were going out somewhere for tonight. Esme and Carlisle are going to be gone for a couple of days, and Edward is with Bella. We all know Edward won't be home until tomorrow to change clothes and then go back over to her place."

_We're alone…_ Sophia couldn't stop her heart from pounding as she turned away from Emmett and walked over to her closet, but she froze when his arms wrapped around her from behind.

His face was next to hers and she could feel his lips as he whispered, "Yes, and I can't tell you how sorry I am…"

She inhaled sharply, he was so close to her. Clearly he had to know the effect that he had on her when he was like this. She leaned back into his chest and this time something like a moan came out of him. She turned and looked up into his eyes. There was a hunger in his eyes, and she knew it wasn't because he needed to hunt, it was something else entirely, this was a look she had not really seen from him before. Her hand snaked up his chest, neck, and finally around behind his head and pulled him down so that he was kissing her again.

He held her, crushing her against his large frame, kissing her hard on the mouth. She pulled back for a moment and sighed, and Emmett tilted her chin back up claiming her lips again. He lifted her up, her legs instinctively wrapped around him, and without breaking the kiss once he carried her over to the couch. He stopped in front of the couch not setting her down kissing her neck, her fingers digging into his shoulders as she gasped at the cool feel of his lips going lower on her neck, then to her collarbone.

She heard the door downstairs open, and the sounds of Edward and Bella's voices carried up to their room. Emmett turned to look back at Sophia's door, and she clung to him as she looked around him in the same direction as they heard a soft knock on her door.

Emmett groaned quietly in frustration. "You have got to be kidding me…"

Sophia turned his face and kissed him slowly before she dropped down to the floor, checking to make sure everything was in place before she walked over to the door and opened it. Edward was standing in the doorway.

"I came to check on you and see if you were back from hunting, and you… hmm…" Edward stopped talking when he saw Emmett standing behind her.

"Edward." Emmett said in a serious voice.

Edward coughed uncomfortably. "What's going on, Edward? Is she going to come with us?" Bella asked as she appeared next to him.

He wrapped an arm around her. "Well, I haven't had a chance to ask yet as it appears that I have… uh… Emmett is here… obviously."

"Oh good, please tell me that you guys have forgiven each other and everything is back to normal." Bella commented.

Sophia couldn't help but laugh when Emmett growled quietly behind her. _I would have forgiven you more thoroughly had they not interrupted._ Emmett thought, and Sophia only laughed again.

Edward looked back and forth between the two curiously before finally asking what he had originally come to ask. "I was going to take Bella out to a movie… I know, before you say anything Emmett, I feel that it's important that Bella and I spend plenty of time doing things she enjoys. However, since Sophia has been left alone a lot we were going to ask her to come along and join us as I know Alice and Jasper are gone, as are Esme and Carlisle. We just assumed that you, Emmett, would have left her here by herself."

"What kind of boyfriend to you think I am, Edward?"

"The kind that wasn't getting over your stupidity." Edward answered, and turning his attention back to Sophia asked, "Would you like to come with us?"

Sophia was about to say "no, thank you" when Bella interjected, "Pleeeease, Sophia. You and I hardly spend time together. I feel like out of everyone I spend the least amount of time with you… I would really like it if you came."

Sophia was about to say "no" again when Edward took this moment to say, "Emmett can come too, since it appears that you too have made…" He coughed. "…up… or… Anyway, would you like to join us, Emmett?"

"Sophie?" He asked her.

She glared at him, not knowing how to answer at first, but in the end she couldn't turn down Bella's plea. "We will go."

Edward flashed a smile, "Excellent. We will wait in the car for you. Come on Bella…"

Sophia shut her door and glanced up at Emmett for a moment before walking back over to her closet. "She's good… she's damn good. I don't think even I could've said no to Bella's pitiful face." Emmett grumbled as he followed her to the closet.

"Yes, well, I suppose our alone time will have to wait for another day…" She pulled out a short light blue dress. "Think this is too much?"

Emmett shook his head as he watched her put it up against her body. "No, but I'll be dying because I can't have my way with you in a movie theater. I might scare everyone if I do that… You will look gorgeous. Heels would be too much, some flats will make it look more casual it's good."

A smirk formed on Sophia's face. "Listen to you and your fashion expertise."

He shrugged. "I do what I can. Now before you go and change…"

Emmett pulled her to him and kissed her again this time slow and meaningful. Sophia dropped everything she was holding in her hands and tugged at his shirt. He growled deep, and pulled away slowly, holding her hands still against his chest.

"You'd better change before I decide we're not going anywhere."

She bit her lip and nodded, grabbing her things off the floor and running out of the room to the bathroom. Emmett fell back onto the couch, a hand running over his hair. She was a beautiful woman, and he had missed holding her and kissing her more than he ever thought he did. He almost lost complete control over himself. In the end he knew that it hadn't been worth all the trouble to ignore her for so long. Now that she had forgiven his idiocy, and everything fell back into place where they were talking and everything was good again he could feel how she was exactly what he needed in his life.

He looked up at the door when she came walking back in and he could have groaned at the sight of her in that dress it looked even better on her then he thought it originally would. He couldn't help but smile as she went back into her closet leaving the door open and she struggled to reach a box that was on the shelf above the bar that held all of her hanging clothes. Emmett rose from the couch and reached over her head from behind her, easily getting the box down.

"Is this what you needed?" He asked.

She nodded, a blush creeping over her cheeks as she looked away from him and rushed to stuff the shoes in her hand that she had just been wearing back into the box. She was about to try to get them back up and looked away slightly embarrassed when Emmett grabbed the box and set it right back on the shelf. Pulling a box next to them off and handing it to her.

"These shoes should work. Maybe I need to make some changes to this closet to make it better for you to reach everything. How in the world did you get that box down this morning without my help?" He asked an amused smile creeping over his features as he imagined various ways of her getting it.

She sighed and pushed around him to walk out of the closet. "I used the chair from the desk." She mumbled almost too quietly for him to hear.

A roar of laughter came from Emmett as he followed her out of the closet and shut the door behind him. He was clutching his side as he doubled over in laughter. Sophia frowned and crossed her arms over her chest as she watched him, soon a smile formed on her face and no matter how annoyed she was at the fact that Emmett was laughing at her being so short she couldn't help the happiness that spread through her at the sight of him.

"Oh, Sophie, I'm not laughing at you… just the image of you in my mind that even with that chair you possibly had trouble…"

The smile disappeared from her face as her jaw dropped. "Emmett! I'm not a freaking child! I'm tall enough to reach the shelf with a damn chair!"

She grabbed her purse and without another word walked directly out of the room. Emmett followed her still laughing. "Aw, come on Sophie… you're just so damn cute. I can't help it." He apologized, still following her.

"Yes, like a cute little puppy." She grumbled.

Bella and Edward had come back inside and were standing at the bottom of the stairs looking as though they were about to come up and see if Sophia and Emmett were actually going to leave with them or not, and they froze when they saw Sophia's face.

Suddenly, Sophia felt herself being yanked back and she was pressed against Emmett's body as he kissed her with a force and hunger that made her blush when she thought about how Edward and Bella were in the room. The kiss made her forget that fact quickly, but just as fast Emmett ended it. An uncomfortable cough had come from Edward, and Bella had gasped. When Sophia looked out of the corner of her eye for a split second to see Edward was standing looking at the piano with a hand half in his hair as though he were about to run his hand through it, but it was blocking his view of them. Bella had completely turned her back to them, hands in the pockets of her jeans.

Emmett turned her face so she was looking up directly at him. "You know very well I don't look at you like you're a cute little puppy. You're gorgeous, and I'm unfortunately reminded of that beauty every single time I take you out anywhere and every single boy, and man turns to look at you with that look in his eye. You are incredibly attractive, and hell we all know you turn me on, so… no I don't think you're a cute puppy, but some of the things you do are just adorable whether you try to make them that way or not."

Sophia nodded there was nothing she could say to that. She was still pressed against him and she knew very well the fact that she turned him on as she could feel even that against her. Emmett kissed her softly and when he pulled back he kissed her forehead, she heard him inhale deeply and she smiled. He always did love the smell of her hair, and she loved that he always did that, it was a sweet and comforting action in a strange way.

"Are we going to go to this movie, or have you two decided you're going to play 'knock the house down' instead?" Edward asked.

They looked over at him, and he was now facing them with a mischievous grin on his face. "As much as I would love to do that right now, Edward, she promised Bella that we would go to the movies with you. Now, that's what we're doing. I just needed to prove a point, and unfortunately you two were around when I had to prove it, although you're lucky you were there because I have a feeling if you hadn't been then we may have ended up seeing the next showing of the movie as we more than likely would have missed this one."

Edward laughed, and Bella looked slightly confused. "What's 'knock the house down'? Is that some vampire game thing you play?" She asked.

This was the second time in only a matter of minutes that Emmett busted out in laughter so loud that Sophia thought he may fall over laughing so hard. Edward was laughing as well and he said, "You could say it's a sort of vampire… er… game thing… we… uh… play…"

Emmett laughed even harder trying to speak in between his laughter. "More like… a… game… I played… Edward hasn't played… yet!"

Sophia caught Emmett as he stumbled forward still laughing. She was shaking her head with a sympathetic smile in Edward direction. "I have half a mind to leave your ass here, Emmett."

He was still laughing so hard he couldn't answer. Sophia walked past Edward and Bella holding Emmett up. Edward laughed a little at the sight of her tiny frame holding up Emmett's large one. He followed the two outside happy to see that things seemed to have gone back to normal, or at least normal for them, and at least for now it had anyway.

"What kind of game is it Edward? Like what do you have to do in this game? Is it dangerous? Is that why you haven't played it yet?" Bella asked as quietly as she could, but Emmett overheard her question and laughed even louder.

"Good grief, Emmett, you're going to scare the entire state of Washington with that laugh if you keep it up." Sophia commented as she opened the back door of the Volvo and shoved Emmett inside.

Edward sighed, and as he held Bella's car door open he answered her question. "Let's just say that it's a game you and I can't play together."

Bella scowled as he avoided giving her a direct answer. Emmett's laughs had quieted, but he had a constant chuckle still going and Sophia rolled her eyes. When Edward made eye contact with her in the rearview mirror Emmett had an arm around her, she was tucked into his side and his forehead was resting on her shoulder as he tried to laugh quietly. Sophia flashed Edward a smile before pushing Emmett's head back playfully. When they arrived at the movie theater Bella was the one who had to pick the movie, and fortunately she picked a movie that had been out for quite a while in hopes that the theater would be pretty empty.

Bella and Edward waited in line for some popcorn and a large drink that they would pretend they were going to share. Sophia and Emmett stood together away from the commotion of the line for concessions. People all around them were staring at the two of them as they playfully joked around and talked to each other. Emmett leaned down and kissed the top of her head as a girl, who was awfully bold, walked straight up to them. She ignored Sophia and looked directly up at Emmett as if waiting for him to acknowledge her.

"Um, hi, I'm Trish." The girl said, tossing her hair over her shoulder in what looked like an attempted sexy move. Sophia held her laugh in so she wouldn't make this girl angry.

Emmett looked over at her with a bored expression. "Right… and…"

The girl looked shocked at his annoyed tone of voice for only a moment before she pressed on. "And, I think you're hot. Maybe you and I could go out sometime…"

Emmett barked out a quick laugh, interrupting her mid-sentence. "A little bold of you to come up to me when clearly I am standing here with a woman…"

Sophia smirked at the girl when her eyes darted over her small frame and back up at Emmett. She didn't seem defeated in the least. "I figured she was probably your little sister or something. You clearly need a real woman… not some little girl."

That was it, Sophia couldn't hold back the laughter. "Are you serious?"

Trish shot her a dirty look before pulling out a receipt from her pocket and a pen out of her purse. She jotted something down quickly and held it out to Emmett. "I'm sure you can't talk about how you would prefer a real woman to ease your needs… not in front of _her_ but don't worry… you can call me any time and I'll be more than happy to…" She stepped up to his side where Sophia wasn't and pressed herself against him. "show you… mmm… and you're strong…"

"You… what was your name again?" Sophia asked calmly.

The girl unwillingly looked at Sophia. "TRISH."

"Well Trina…"

"TRISH!" She yelled angrily, people around them turned to look at her, if they weren't already looking in their direction.

"Whatever, just be a dear and walk away. If you do now then maybe you won't be so humiliated when he says HELL no to you." Sophia said with a sweet smile on her face.

Emmett chuckled. Trish wasn't ruffled by this comment at all. "Right… you… what's your name?"

Emmett looked at her as if she were crazy. "I'm not telling you my name."

"Mmm, and a man of mystery." She purred rubbing herself closer. Emmett took steps back holding Sophia close against his body. "I like that…"

Sophia laughed again. "You have GOT to be kidding me… really, are you THAT desperate. Look, Tess…"

The girl practically growled when she yelled, "TRISH!"

"Yeah, uh huh, whatever, anyway… Terri, let me put it to you in words you will understand… You no can haz manz."

"You… are a bitch." Trish commented shoving a finger into Sophia's chest.

Emmett grabbed her arm still so that Trish couldn't touch Sophia, and growled low, only Sophia heard it, as well as Edward and Bella who were watching the scene at a slight distance. "I wouldn't do that again if I were you. If you value your pathetic little life… don't touch her."

"Aw, why, she can't defend herself?"

"You WISH she couldn't defend herself. You would be lying on this floor dead if you challenged her, and I'd wager to say it would only take her maybe… oh… half than a second to do it all." Emmett commented.

"Just think about it. I understand you have to put on a show for her, but I'll forgive you for faking it. I won't hold it against you." She reached up to touch his face and Sophia grabbed her arm so quickly that the girl gasped wide eyed at her.

"Look Tibby… you might not want to touch him like that. I don't play nicely when someone messes with my boyfriend in front of me." Sophia commented.

The girl rolled her eyes and Emmett growled. "I wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole." He looked at Sophia his thoughts rolling through her just as clearly as if he had been talking out loud. _Erase her memory so she doesn't remember talking to us please. Make her like someone else._

Sophia giggled a little while she swapped the memory of their argument with one of her having a crush on some boy standing in the corner with his cheerleader girlfriend. Emmett took her hand and followed Edward and Bella to their theater. When they walked into the theater there was nobody in there. Bella and Edward sat off on their own and Emmett and Sophia sat together on the other side of the theater. They laughed quietly when the girl they had just had a run in with walked in with a couple of other girls. They sat a couple of rows in front of them and kept looking back.

Emmett whispered in Sophia's ear. "Shall we give them a little show?"

She smirked. "What do you have in mind?"

They sat calmly while the previews played and as soon as the theater got dark and the movie started all three girls turned to look back at them. Sophia felt herself being lifted and she gave Emmett a surprised look when she sat on his lap one leg on either side of him. He pulled her face towards his and began kissing her without holding himself back.

"Oh…. My… God… can you believe them?" One of the girls whispered.

"I don't think it's fair, she's not even that cute!" The other girl said.

"That's just disgusting… they should've just stayed home if that's what they were going to do here… I do NOT need to see that." Trish grumbled.

Sophia smiled against Emmett's lips. "You are pure evil, my love."


End file.
